This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Their wives and children in South Florida and Kansas City with school back in session, Cardinals pitchers Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson often like to unwind after games by sitting around a backyard bonfire and talking about curveball grips or who had the longest poke at the most recent trip to the driving range.

The only difference now, however, is that Hudson doesn’t have to leave Mikolas’ house in suburban St. Louis and head to his own home. Instead, he just treks down to the basement where he is currently living, rent-free, for the rest of this baseball season thanks to a helping hand from his good friend and fellow pitcher.

A Cardinal since 2018, Hudson failed to make the club’s Opening Day roster and started this season with Triple-A Memphis. He made the most of his July 5 promotion to the big leagues, and was able to stick around the Cardinals by morphing into one of the team's most consistently effective starting pitchers late this season. Hudson, tonight’s starter in Baltimore when the Cardinals face the Orioles, did all that while living in a hotel -- something that didn’t sit right with Mikolas, who quickly extended the invitation to Hudson to move into his fully furnished basement.

“We both have a couple kids, and our kids play together, and when his wife was in St. Louis, we had hung out and saw them a few times,” Mikolas recalled. “Both our families were starting school and going back home. When I asked if he was in the hotel or had gotten an apartment, I told him to just come live in my basement. I’ve got a fully done basement, with a bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, sink -- the whole deal. I said, ‘Come hang out so we don't have to be alone.’ So, we’re helping each other out by not being alone.”

During the 2022 season, Hudson had a house in St. Louis, but lived in a Memphis hotel during a brief stint in Triple-A. This season, he had a house in Memphis, but lived in a hotel upon being recalled to the Cardinals. Now, Mikolas has lessened the burden of living in a hotel on Hudson while also being away from his wife and four children.

“We’re a little bit more grown up now [than resembling college roommates] because we’ve got kids. We’re just dads with kids now,” said Hudson, who is 6-1 this season with the Cardinals. “We’ll talk some baseball here and there, but mostly it’s just a good time to kick back with a good friend and get that mental reset away from the ball field.”

What Hudson likes most, he said, are the fireside chats with Mikolas after games when the topics could be about just anything imaginable. It certainly beats being alone in a hotel, he said. They also ride to and from Busch Stadium together and use the time to pump one another up when it’s their turn to start.

“We could be talking pitching mechanics one minute and the next it’s a favorite breakfast that the kids like to eat,” said Mikolas. “The next thing you know, it’s, ‘How's school going for your kids?’ I think Dak’s son just started soccer and mine just started T-ball, so we’re sharing stories. He's got three kids and I've got four all similar ages. We’re just sharing war stories and it's awesome.

“When you're having a tough season, sometimes the last thing you want to do is sit around and think and be alone. So, it's nice to have someone there to talk about non-baseball stuff.”

Hudson thinks one of the reasons he’s had such a good return run with the Cardinals late this season -- he’s 5-1 as a starter -- is because of the hospitality shown to him by Mikolas.

“Him letting me stay at the house has helped me feel more at ease, for sure,” he said. “Hopefully it’s doing the same thing for him as well with his family not being there. Over the past couple of years, I’ve been going to Miles’ house for Thanksgiving and some other holidays. So, this time, I think he’s doing more than just extending a friendly hand; I feel like he’s actually putting me in the family now.”