On a night marked by Nolan Arenado's return to St. Louis, one of his former offseason workout partners, Andre Pallante, and another player from his former high school, Nathan Church, stole the show at Busch Stadium.

Pallante, a Southern California native just like Arenado, won his career-best ninth game by limiting the Diamondbacks to six hits and one earned run as the Cardinals edged Arizona 3-2 before 22,050 fans at Busch Stadium.

Pallante knew that it was important to work deep into the game following a weekend series in Kansas City and a wild 12-10 win on Sunday that heavily taxed the bullpen. On Monday, he pitched six strong innings for his third straight quality start.

“It doesn’t change anything about the process that I’m going through because I have a way to attack hitters and I’m just trying to remain committed to that,” said Pallante, who recorded 12 ground-ball outs and didn’t walk a batter on Monday. “Knowing that I had to get through some innings, yeah that made it special. But’s just nice to get a good team win.”  

Continuing to distance himself from a horrid 2025 season, Pallante moved into a five-way tie for second in MLB with his nine victories. Brewers’ reliever Aaron Ashby (10-1) is the only MLB pitcher with more wins than Pallante, who has reinvented himself in 2026 as a pitcher who remains in attack mode and is featuring a newfound confidence.

“What he’s been able to grow into, I think this is a reminder for all of us the importance of giving people a chance,” Marmol said of Pallante, who went 0-8 over his final 10 starts of 2025. “A year ago, we sat in this (press conference) room and there was plenty of, ‘Is this his last start?’ You give him enough opportunity to show what he’s capable of doing and opportunity to grow and now we’re seeing a guy that does a nice job every outing.”  

Arenado, who starred for the Cardinals from 2021-25, returned to Busch Stadium for the first time since he was dealt to Arizona last January. Arenado, the Cardinals all-time leader in home runs among third basemen with 117 with the birds on a bat across his chest, was greeted with an extended standing ovation before his first at bat and he appeared close to tears with gesturing warmly to the adoring fans. Arenado, who came into the night hitting .240 with eight homers and 32 RBI, singled in the first inning off Pallante and plated a run in the sixth inning with an infield ground out.

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“Well-deserved (with the standing ovation) and he treated me like gold,” Marmol told Cardinals.TV. “This is a guy, when it comes to competing, everything he cared about was winning. His work and preparation all pointed toward that. I enjoyed having him here. Obviously, things didn’t work out as planned (with winning a World Series), but it was good to see him again.”

Church, who attended El Toro High School in Lake Forest, Calif., that produced Paul Skenes, Matt Chapman, Arenado and several other MLB standouts, had two hits, a stolen base and an RBI in a game that remained taut throughout. Church singled off Merrill Kelly to open the third inning, stole second and scored the game’s first run on an Alec Burleson hit. In the fourth inning, Church looped a broken-bat single into left field to score Masyn Winn for what proved to be the game's winning run.

Church, who made his MLB debut with the Cards in 2025, said he loved seeing Arenado – his former Cardinals’ teammate – get a warm reception, but that didn’t deter his focus.

“I mean he’s Nolan Arenado, a great player and it was great to play with him,” Church said. “But now we’re playing against him and we’ve got to win.”

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Arenado requested a trade out of St. Louis in hopes of playing for a playoff-bound team, and that might ultimately be the fate of the 39-39 D-backs, who started the night one game back of the Cubs for the final Wild Card slot in the National League. As for the Cardinals, they improved to 42-34 and remained in the NL top Wild Card slot. Monday’s game was the first of 21 straight against teams with .500 or better records, so the stretch could determine the club’s trade deadline plans and its playoff hopes for October.

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