ST. LOUIS -- Forcing himself to smile following a personal milestone and a gut punch of an extra-inning loss for the Cardinals on Friday at Busch Stadium, Paul Goldschmidt thanked 9-year-old fan Jack Boyd with an autographed bat and ball and an inspirational message.

“Nice catch!” Goldschmidt wrote on the bat that he signed and exchanged with the Boyd family to secure Friday’s 10th-inning home run ball that proved to be the 2,000th hit of his likely Hall of Fame career.

Goldschmidt’s use of the word “catch” was dripping with irony with it coming on a night when a couple of missed catches doomed the Cardinals in a 10-8 loss to the Nationals in 10 innings.

Embattled outfielder Dylan Carlson, the subject of trade rumors for weeks with Tuesday’s Trade Deadline approaching, misplayed two balls in right field -- the final one coming in the 10th inning that allowed three runs to score with two outs. Statcast had the hit probability registered at just 47 percent when the line drive left Jacob Young’s bat. However, it fell in for a triple when Carlson broke late, mistimed his jump and saw the ball roll to the wall.

Goldschmidt, who drilled the two-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning for his 2,000th career hit, felt bad for Carlson for misjudging a ball that left Young’s bat at 98.9 mph. Carlson had 3.6 seconds of opportunity time to cover the 49 feet needed to make the catch, but he was hurt by a negative-2-foot jump, per Statcast.

“Honestly, I couldn’t tell if that was just a ball that was in the right place or if that was a ball he feels he should have caught, then he knows we all have his back,” Goldschmidt said of Carlson, his teammate since 2020, who also took a poor route on a 110.2 mph liner in the top of the second that led to two Washington runs. “This game’s hard, and he’s obviously giving his best effort. We’ve all not made plays we thought we would have, and I don’t know if that’s what happened there. [Young] hit a line drive down the line on a 2-0 pitch.

“We’re all going to go home tonight and say, ‘Man, if I could have gotten one more hit or made one more pitch …’ That’s what we’re all going to do.”

Claiming to have no clue that he was approaching the 2,000-hit plateau, Goldschmidt figured it out after getting back to the dugout following the line-drive homer in the bottom of the 10th. The 376-foot smash made him just the fifth active player with 2,000 hits, joining Freddie Freeman, Jose Altuve, Joey Votto and Andrew McCutchen. Also, the 355th home run of his career allowed him to tie Greg Vaughn for 92nd all-time in MLB history.

“This hasn’t been my best year -- it’s probably been my worst year in the big leagues performance-wise -- but hopefully I can change that going forward,” said Goldschmidt, who is hitting .229 with 15 home runs and 40 RBIs this season. “That’s the goal. At some point -- maybe after the season or when my career is over -- that’s when I can say, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool to have accomplished that.’”

Superstar Nolan Arenado, who hit a towering three-run home run early in the game to give the Cards a brief 5-2 lead, didn’t want Friday’s stinging loss to overshadow the accomplishment by Goldschmidt, his closest friend on the team.

“I’m so happy for him because that’s an amazing accomplishment,” said Arenado, who teamed with rookie shortstop Masyn Winn to hit the other homers for the Cardinals. “He wasn’t that happy because we lost, but that’s typical Goldy because he’s always thinking about the bigger picture and the team. It was a tough loss today -- and we’ve got to win those games -- but we do have to realize what this man has done in this game because he’s a special player and a great friend. He’s done some great things, and he deserves to be recognized.”

To recover the ball from his 2,000th hit, Goldschmidt had to work out a deal with Boyd, who hurriedly scooped up the ball off a carom. The Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., native had been enjoying lots of baseball activities, also attending Nolan Gorman’s kids camp and standing in line for Winn’s autograph. The Boyd family also received tickets and batting practice passes to Saturday’s game.

“That was easy,” Goldschmidt said of the trade for the ball with the Boyd family, who will be down on the field prior to Saturday night’s game. “They got a game bat. Not the one that I used [for the 2,000th hit] because I’m going to keep using that one.”