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.

ATLANTA -- Andre Pallante, the only rookie on the Cardinals' Opening Day roster, quickly endeared himself to his veteran teammates with his humble, “Aw, shucks” type of demeanor, but manager Oliver Marmol is wise to the right-hander’s true personality.

“He’s a little bit of a baseball rat,” Marmol said in a most complimentary manner. “That kid loves to compete, and he does not care one bit about where he is or who he’s facing.”

Pallante, a hard-throwing right-hander out of UC Irvine, has been a godsend for the Cardinals this season -- first, as a trustworthy middle-innings reliever and later as a starter when Jack Flaherty, Steven Matz and Jordan Hicks went down with injuries. While Pallante is good-natured and mostly unassuming, his competitive fire gets stoked when he thinks about how he and fellow rookies can prove themselves as difference-makers for a Cardinals franchise that has designs on winning a 12th World Series title this season.

“You watch a lot of teams that win World Series and the guys who are expected to deliver always perform,” said Pallante, who struggled through his worst outing of the season on Tuesday in Atlanta. “The guys who aren’t really expected to do much who come through are the ones that put a team over the top."

“We have young guys like [Brendan] Donovan, who is absolutely mashing, and [Juan] Yepez, who is doing well and is everything he’s been hyped up to be,” Pallante added. “So, us young guys like to think of ourselves as the difference-makers, and we hope we can surprise some people.”

Pallante recently sat down with MLB.com for some questions about his rise to this lofty position with the Cardinals.

MLB: Miles Mikolas said of all the rookies on the team, you are his favorite because you are so good-natured and tend to roll with the jokes. Have the veterans played any good pranks on you yet?

Pallante: "They’ve done some fun stuff this year and kept it interesting. The best one was when we were in Tampa checking into the hotel and the [veteran pitchers] had gotten my room key and gotten in the room. When I came into the room, they jumped out from behind the door and scared me. I was a little freaked out, but the [key] envelopes are usually sealed and when I saw that mine was open, I was like, ‘Hmmm, something is going on.’ So, I wasn’t totally terrified because I thought something might be up.

“But when everybody left, like two minutes later, [Adam] Wainwright popped out of the curtains and really got me good. I thought I had already been gotten and then they got me again. That’s kind of the atmosphere the guys provide around here. Everything is fun.”

MLB: Who’s the most influential teammate you’ve ever had at any level of baseball? Who is someone who has given you the best advice?

Pallante: “It would be unfair to my teammates to say one was more influential than another, but I’ve definitely had guys at every level. In high school I had Kolby Allard, who is with the Rangers now and he was always there for me. In college, it was Cameron Bishop, who is with the Orioles' organization, and he was the person who taught me how to throw a curveball. [Dakota] Hudson meant a lot to me when he had rehab starts in the Minor Leagues and he gave me great advice.

“For everyone’s careers, we’re all just stacking information bit-by-bit and trying to get better every year. So, I’ve been very fortunate to have good teammates throughout the years.”

MLB: Everybody had the big league dreams when they were super young. But how old were you the first time you thought playing in the Major Leagues was a real possibility?

Pallante: “After my first couple of games here? (Laughs). You know, it’s one of those things where you never feel good enough when you are watching highlight reels because I watch a lot of those. When you only watch highlights, you only see people at their best. But when you watch more and more games, you see that we’re all human and all have flaws. All pitchers give up runs and give up hits. Once I started paying attention to not only everyone’s highlights, but their overall performances, that’s when I felt more comfortable with my ability to pitch at this level.”

MLB: How would you describe the raw emotion that you experienced when you told your father, and biggest supporter and first pitching coach, that you had made the Cardinals' Opening Day roster in early April?

Pallante: “It was right before one of the final days of Spring Training, and I didn’t think my dad would be awake because it was morning [in Jupiter, Fla.] and he was three hours away in California. But I wanted him to know as soon as I knew, so I sent him a text. Of course, he was wide awake because he hadn’t slept much in a couple of days wondering if I was going to make it. He texted me right back and called me later that night after our game. He was talking super-fast and he was super excited for me. It was such a cool moment.”