The Cardinals’ rotation will get stronger this weekend, with the returns of Carlos Martínez and Miles Mikolas signaling the first time this season that their intended Opening Day slate of starters will sport a clean bill of health.

When that officially occurs -- Martínez (returning from a right ankle sprain) started the series opener against the Cubs on Friday and Mikolas is slated for the middle game on Saturday -- it will provide rejuvenation to a crop that has, despite absences, performed at a high level over the past month.

It took St. Louis 17 games into the 2021 season to see one of its starters reach the seventh inning -- an Adam Wainwright gem on April 20. The staff ERA to that date was 5.97 -- second worst in the Majors.

The staff ERA since: 2.72 -- best in the Majors.

“Their first really well pitched game, it seemed like everyone got jealous and everyone went like a complete game or seven or eight innings, almost like a turn or two through the rotation,” Mikolas, who has dealt with a couple of arm injuries and hasn't pitched in a big league game since the 2019 National League Championship Series, said Friday. “It's always fun to watch guys feed off each other, and to get to be a part of that now should be really exciting.”

How’d the about-face occur? Most important has been magnitude; starters averaged just over four frames per outing up to April 20. That number has grown to nearly six innings per start since then.

The Cardinals have gone 17-10 in that span.

The return to health also comes at a crucial time for the Cards, who open a 17-day gauntlet without a scheduled off-day in between. With Mikolas and Martínez back in the fold, gone are the days of needing to call up an arm for a spot start. A six-man rotation is now the status quo, with a trimming decision then to be made after the next break comes on June 17.

“It's important that we get the principal players that we want to compete with back,” said manager Mike Shildt. “It makes you stronger.”

Stronger for, say, welcoming the archrival Cubs to St. Louis for the first time in exactly 600 days?

The Cards Minor Leaguer who out-K’d deGrom
The moment first hit John Beller while he was throwing his warmup pitches at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium, seeing the starter for the St. Lucie Mets do the same in the visiting bullpen. Pitching for the home team, the Low-A Palm Beach Cardinals, Beller got to make his mark -- his literal cleat marks -- on the mound first.

But when he went back out for the second inning, they were carved anew by a two-time Cy Young Award winner.

“And I was like, ‘You got to be kidding me,’” Beller said. “Like, I don't want to scuff up his holes now. I was like, ‘Holy cow. I'm going to piss off Jacob deGrom because I need to get my foot back into the fitting of the mound.’”

The Mets' ace made a now-semi-viral rehab appearance against Palm Beach on Thursday, needing 41 pitches to strike out eight of the 10 batters he faced across three frames, 18-year-old Jordan Walker and several other top Cardinals prospects included.

Impressive in its own right was the performance against deGrom, as Beller fanned 10 across 5 1/3 frames of his own. That handed the lefty, an undrafted signing out of USC last July, the current hold of the Florida State League strikeout crown, with 26 in 17 innings.

So what’s it like to brush up against greatness?

“I was completely juiced out of my mind,” Beller told MLB.com on Friday evening.

And for the hitters, who also faced Seth Lugo and Noah Syndergaard in the leadup to deGrom?

“There were a lot of smiles walking back into the dugout, just confusion. Like, ‘I've never seen anything like that,’” Beller said. “I think I remember Jordan Walker saying that he saw the ball out of deGrom’s hand, and then it was in the glove.”

“What a great experience though, in all sincerity,” Shildt added. “You don't know what the bar is until you start to measure yourself against it.”

Batters in the Florida State League league are having a hard enough time hitting off Beller, who’s sporting a 3.18 ERA in his first pro season against a torrid 13.8 strikeouts per nine innings.

Wherever the 22-year-old’s career takes him, he can say when he faced off against deGrom, he reigned victorious in the strikeout.

“I came into the dugout, and some of the guys were like, ‘You're really just showing up deGrom right now, aren't you?’” Beller recalled. “I'm just trying to do what I can.”