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About two weeks before he took the field Wednesday night at Busch Stadium, Cardinals infielder Jose Fermin talked with Jose Oquendo, a Cardinals Hall of Famer and the organization’s minor league coordinator of instruction.

Of the things that came up in Fermin’s conversation with the longtime Cardinal was the topic of pinch-hitting and Oquendo’s history in those situations.

“He told me ... read what a team wanted from me if it was like, ‘OK, you need to get on base. You need to come swinging,’” Fermin on Thursday. “Things like that. He was just telling me about patience. Being a little patient sometimes is not a bad thing, especially because he told me we are kind of similar hitters where we make a lot of contact and we don’t strike out much.”

Fermin put Oquendo’s words of wisdom into practice in his first game back in the majors since July 6.

After being told around 11 a.m. he was being recalled to the majors — and after traffic slowed him on his drive from Memphis, Tennessee, to ������Ƶ — Fermin arrived at Busch Stadium by the third inning of Wednesday’s National League Central matchup against Milwaukee. Fermin recalled getting stretched and preparing to come off the bench if needed as some of the first things he did upon his arrival.

“I said (hello) to everyone, and it was just like, roll right into it. Right into getting ready,” he said.

That need came in the top of the eighth inning when Fermin was used as a defensive substitution for Luken Baker after Baker delivered a pinch-hit home run in second baseman Brendan Donovan’s spot in the bottom of the seventh.

Fermin’s spot in the order came up in the bottom of the ninth when the Cardinals trailed 6-4. Fermin lined a double to right field off Brewers closer Devin Williams to put runners on second and third after Willson Contreras was hit by a pitch to begin the frame. Fermin and Contreras scored to tie the game after Lars Nootbaar, Matt Carpenter and Tommy Pham drew walks against Williams, a former two-time All-Star and a Hazelwood West graduate.

In the 10th inning, Fermin stepped to the plate with runners on first and second base after Masyn Winn began the extra-inning frame as the automatic runner and after Contreras was intentionally walked. Fermin drew a walk in a five-pitch battle vs. Trevor Megill to load the bases for Nolan Arenado, who clubbed a walk-off grand slam.

“The first at-bat was more of like: OK, (Contreras) got on base. It’s more like: Let’s try to drive the ball,” Fermin said. “The second at-bat, I had a chance to win the game. The same thing. Get a good pitch and try to put a good swing on it.”

Fermin’s at-bats helped the Cardinals even a three-game series vs. the Brewers as they look to keep pace in the NL Central and in the chase for one of the NL’s three wild-card spots.

“He takes a really pesky at-bat,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said of Fermin. “Bat-to-ball skills are really high, and he takes his walks. We saw that yesterday.”

Longtime Reds 1B Votto retires

Longtime Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto announced his retirement from Major League Baseball on Wednesday via Instagram. Votto, 40, played parts of 17 seasons with the Reds. He made six NL All-Star teams, became an NL MVP in 2010 and posted a .294/.409/.511 slash line for his career.

The Cardinals’ longtime divisional rival signed a minor league deal with the Toronto Blue Jays in March in hopes of playing for the only MLB club to represent Votto’s home country of Canada. Votto dealt with an injury and played in 31 games within the Blue Jays minor league system before retiring.

Votto did not reach the majors this year. He’ll end his career having only donned a Reds jersey at the major league level.

“I feel like the Reds were so lucky to get, of course, the Hall of Fame-caliber player he is, but Joey is one of the rare veterans who still worked like he was a rookie when I played with him, and it’s the end of his career,” said Cardinals outfielder Pham, who played with Votto in 2022. “... You can’t quantify that.”

Votto played in 224 games against the Cardinals — the third-most games against any opponent in his career.

“He’s a great player, and I consider him to be a Hall of Famer,” Cardinals designated hitter Carpenter said of Votto. “The guy accomplished a lot as a player. He was a great ambassador of our game, and he was a Cincinnati Red icon. I’ve had the luxury of getting to know him personally over the years. He’s just a good human, and I want to congratulate him on a great career.

Against the Cardinals, Votto batted .298 with a .929 on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS), 50 doubles and 36 home runs. Votto’s .929 OPS against ������Ƶ was the highest he produced against any of the NL Central teams he faced.

“I think for a long stretch — 10-plus years — there was nobody in baseball who was taking a better at-bat than he was,” Carpenter added.

Extra bases

Starting pitcher Steven Matz (lower back strain) will “most likely” make another rehab start before he is activated from the injured list, Marmol said. Matz completed five innings on 85 pitches and allowed four runs on nine hits during his Wednesday rehab start with Class AAA Memphis. Two of the four runs he allowed came on a home run.

Since returning to game action on Aug. 1, Matz has completed 18 innings in five starts and has posted a 3.00 ERA in that span.

Michael Siani (right oblique strain) progressed to taking indoor batting practice thrown by a coach on Thursday, Marmol said. Marmol said before Thursday’s game that Siani was nearing the start of a rehab assignment, but the date for when that may start had not yet been determined.

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Jordan Walker returns to the minors following a platoon look in the majors: Cardinals Extra

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A spark that flickers and fades in short order can be eye-catching, but it’s ultimately inconsequential. However, a spark that ignites a flame can have big and far-reaching ramifications.

The Cardinals went into Thursday afternoon needing and wanting to make Nolan Arenado’s walk-off grand slam in extra innings the previous night the start of something as opposed to a brief, bright burst.

In order to do that, the Cardinals had to make good on the chance Arenado’s big swing gave them — the chance to still take a series from National League Central Division leader Milwaukee after a gut-wrenching one-run loss in the series opener Tuesday, when the Cardinals left the bases loaded in the final inning.

A strong pitching performance spearheaded by right-hander Miles Mikolas and a three-run seventh inning gave the Cardinals the victory they desired as they beat the Brewers 3-0 in the finale of their three-game series in front of an announced crowd of 28,630 at Busch Stadium (for the third straight day, the smallest crowd not restricted by the pandemic in the ballpark’s history).

The Cardinals (63-64) moved to within a game of .500 and are 10 games back of the Brewers (73-54) in the division with 35 games remaining in the season.

“That’s a big momentum sway in the series,” rookie center fielder Victor Scott II said of Arenado’s walk-off. “I feel like if Nado doesn’t do that, then we may be in a different situation today. That definitely provided a spark in this locker room, so being able to come back out today, being able to compete, everybody doing their job, that’s Cardinal baseball.”

Scott smacked a team-high three hits (3 for 4), including a double, stole a base and scored the game’s first run. First baseman Alec Burleson went 2 for 3 with two walks. Catcher Willson Contreras (1 for 3, walk, RBI) and Arenado (1 for 4, RBI) each drove in runs, while Lars Nootbaar walked twice.

The Cardinals had just three hits against Brewers starting pitcher Freddy Peralta. They loaded the bases against him in the third inning but didn’t score.

The score remained 0-0 until the Cardinals made good on an opportunity in the seventh against Brewers reliever Nick Mears.

Scott, who registered the first three-hit game of his major league career, roped a one-out single into right field. Then rookie shortstop Masyn Winn lined a single just over the outstretched glove of leaping Brewers shortstop Willy Adames. Burleson’s single up the middle loaded the bases with still just one out.

The next batter, Contreras, fell behind 0-2 before he earned a bases-loaded walk and forced in the game’s first run.

“I was looking for something to drive down the middle (of the field),” Contreras said. “Of course, they were pitching me really tough, (giving) nothing good to me. I was just battling. I know I’m finding my rhythm again in the box, but it’s not about me. I think I just put up a good at-bat after an 0-2 count and passed the at-bat to the next guy.”

The next guy, Brendan Donovan, swatted a sinking line drive into center field. With Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell charging in on the ball, Contreras had to hesitate between first and second base in an effort to not get doubled off of first in case Garrett caught the ball.

Winn scored on the play, but Contreras got forced out at second base.

The next batter, Arenado, singled to left-center and drove in Burleson to give the Cardinals a three-run advantage.

Tuesday’s series opener marked the start of a stretch of 22 consecutive games against playoff contending teams for the Cardinals.

“Going into the end of the season, I know we have a lot of games that are against teams that are either going to be in the playoffs or trying to scrap their way there,” Mikolas said. “So every base, every play, every bag, every pitch matters this time of year.”

Mikolas worked around traffic in the first inning but then shut down the Brewers for the rest of the day.

The Brewers put runners on first and third with one out via a Jackson Chourio double followed by a William Contreras single.

With two chances to get a run in from third base, Mikolas kept the Brewers out of the scoring column. He got cleanup hitter Mitchell on a called third strike via a sinker on the inside corner. Then Mikolas got Adames to hit a bouncer to third base for an inning-ending force out.

The Mitchell strikeout started a string of eight consecutive batters retired by Mikolas, who allowed just two hits and one walk over six scoreless innings.

Mikolas struck out three in six scoreless innings to record a quality start. He didn’t allow a hit after the first inning, and Cardinals pitchers didn’t allow a hit from the second inning through the eighth.

The Brewers faced Cardinals right-handers Erick Fedde and Kyle Gibson leading into Thursday’s finale with Mikolas on the mound. Both Fedde and Gibson tend to pitch to contact and rely on being able to keep the ball on the ground. They each have ground-ball rates at or above 50%.

With Mikolas typically having leaned on his sinker and slider as part of a fairly balanced distribution of pitch types to keep opposing hitters on the ground, he easily could have presented a similar profile to what Brewers hitters faced the previous two nights.

While both Fedde and Gibson gave the Cardinals solid starts — Fedde allowed two runs in 5⅔ innings and Gibson allowed two runs in 5⅓ innings — Willson Contreras, Mikolas and the Cardinals pitching coaching staff decided to switch gears on the aggressive Brewers hitters.

“I think I’ve been hiding the ball a little bit better in my delivery as I say more balanced, so it keeps guys a little more honest on the fastball,” Mikolas said. “I think it helps my movement on the sinker as well. It helps make them two very different pitches, one that’s holding the line as much as possible and then one where it’s just kind of running and staying down in the zone and getting underneath the barrel.”

Mikolas threw nearly as many four-seam fastballs Thursday (33) as he did in his previous two starts against the Brewers this season combined (35). He used the four-seamer more than any of his six pitches, going to it 37% of the time (33 of 90 pitches). He’d featured the slider most prominently in his previous starts against the Brewers this season.

“I think Miles’ four-seam is really good and will beat people,” said Willson Contreras, who caught all three games for the Cardinals. “It showed up today that his four-seamer has good life and he can manipulate it really good. It was something we planned before the game. The most important thing is that he was able to execute when we needed to.”

The four-seam usage appeared to add to the effectiveness of his sinker, the pitch he went to second-most in the outing (24%).

The Brewers, who entered the day with the ninth-best scoring offense in the majors, didn’t have a hit off of Mikolas after the third batter of the game. Meanwhile, 12 of the 18 outs Mikolas recorded were groundouts.

“It’s a hard team to strike out,” Willson Contreras said. “They have a really good approach. They make a lot of contact. They’re really a pain, but when you execute pitches you can get them out. But strikeout wise, it’s hard to get strikeouts against them.”

Relievers Andrew Kittredge (one inning), JoJo Romero (one inning, 30th hold of the season) and Ryan Helsley (one inning) completed the seventh shutout of the season for the Cardinals. Helsley recorded his MLB-leading 39th save of the season.

“There’s a good vibe and energy in that clubhouse right now as far as how they’re just attacking every day,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “I said it yesterday, all you can do is just stay present and go one pitch at a time. I feel like our guys are competing extremely well every pitch. They’re not giving a whole lot away. Our pitches did a nice job. We had a good approach. We faced a solid arm in Peralta, and I liked our approach.

“A solid win for sure. That’s a good team across the way. They’ve been playing good baseball, so to be able to take that series is important.”

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Cardinals take final game 3-0 in series with Milwaukee Brewers

On Wednesday night across four cities and four levels of professional baseball, the Cardinals organization experienced four walk-off wins.

In ������Ƶ, third baseman Nolan Arenado clubbed a grand slam in the 10th inning to lift the Cardinals to a 10-6 win over the Brewers. Down in Memphis, it was outfielder Alfonso Rivas III who hit a sacrifice fly to lift Class AAA Memphis to an 8-7 win over Charlotte. For Class AA Springfield, infield prospect Noah Mendlinger delivered a game-winning single that led to a 3-2 S-Cards win in 10 innings over Tulsa. And in Peoria, Illinois, outfielder Darlin Moquete’s two-run home in the ninth inning that aided Class High-A Peoria to a 3-2 win over Fort Wayne.

The first of the clutch hits by a member of the Cardinals organization came by Moquete in Peoria. After infielder Tre Richardson reached base and stole second to put the game-tying run in scoring position against Fort Wayne, the 24-year-old Moquete jumped on the first pitch he saw from Manuel Castro.

Moquete’s drive to left field sailed beyond the berm at Dozer Park and onto the concourse for the game-winning hit that sent his Chiefs teammates out of the dugout in celebration and earned Moquete an water cooler shower.

Not too long after in Springfield, Missouri, Nathan Church drew a leadoff walk to give Springfield runners on first and second base with no outs in the 10th inning after Bryan Torres began the inning as the automatic runner at first base. After catching prospect Jimmy Crooks reached base on a fielder’s choice to load the bases, R.J. Yeager’s hit by pitch pushed across a run to set up Mendlinger’s heroics two at-bats later.

Following a forceout from Jacob Buchberger, Mendlinger singled to right field to score Matt Lloyd, who pinch-ran for Crooks, from third base for Springfield’s second walk-off win in as many days at Hammons Field.

Nearly a half hour later at AutoZone Park in Memphis, Tennessee, Ivan Herrera successfully stole third base in the 10th inning of a 7-7 ballgame after he began the frame as the automatic runner. Herrera’s successful steal allowed him to score ease after Rivas lifted a fly ball to center field.

To cap the night of walk-off heroics in the Cardinals organization, Arenado stepped up the plate against Milwaukee’s Trevor Megill with the bases loaded and no outs after Willson Contreras was intentionally walked and Jose Fermin drew a walk.

Arenado fell behind, 0-2, in the count to Megill before pulling Megill’s curveball into the left field corner at Busch Stadium for a grand slam to give the Cardinals a win over their NL Central foes and bookend a walk-off-filled Wednesday.

Cardinals prospect Tink Hence continued his gradual workload buildup on Wednesday when he completed four scoreless innings on 58 pitches (33 strikes) in a start for Class AA Springfield. Hence, 22, struck out five batters, walked two, and allowed three hits before he exited his start.

The 58 pitches from Hence were his most in a start since May 30, when he threw 97 pitches. Since returning to Springfield’s rotation after sitting out a month because of fatigue and back discomfort, Hence has made five starts and surpassed the 50-pitch mark in two outings. Before reaching 58 pitches during Springfield’s 3-2 win in 10 innings over Tulsa, Hence surpassed 50 pitches on Aug. 18.Wednesday’s start was the second consecutive in which the right-hander completed at least four innings.

Against Tulsa, Hence allowed one hit in his first two innings. A leadoff double from Bubba Alleyne and a walk to Brendon Davis put runners on first and second with no outs in the third inning. Hence escaped the inning without giving up any runners by getting Donovan Casey to lineout, inducing an infield pop-up against Noah Miller, and striking out Damon Keith, swinging, after falling behind 2-0 in the count to Keith.

Across his five starts since returning from injury after Major League Baseball’s All-Star break, Hence has a 0.56 ERA in 16 innings. The right-hander has struck out 21 batters and walked three in that stretch.

Here are other performances from the Cardinals farm system:

Left-handed pitcher Steven Matz, Class AAA Memphis (MLB rehab assignment): In his fifth rehab start since resuming returning to game action at the start of August, Matz reached his 85-pitch target but allowed four runs on nine hits over five innings. Of the nine hits Matz allowed, one was a two-run home run. Matz struck out three batters, walked one, and hit another in Memphis’s 8-7 walk-off win over Charlotte. Before Wednesday’s start, Matz had completed 13 innings and allowed three runs (two earned) in four starts for a 1.38 ERA. The 85 pitches Matz threw vs. Charlotte were his most in a start since resuming his rehab assignment. His next steps have not yet been determined.

Catcher Ivan Herrera, Class AAA Memphis: Herrera extended his hitting streak to nine consecutive games with a two-for-five performance that included a two-run home run. With Memphis leading by a run in the fifth inning, Herrera connected on a 405-foot home run that sailed over the left-center field wall at AutoZone Park. The home run was Herrera’s second in the last five games he’s appeared in for Memphis. Herrera is batting .353 during his hitting streak. He’s connected on two home runs and driven in eight runs over that span. After getting optioned to Memphis at the start of July, Herrera is batting .294 with five home runs, 16 RBIs, and has as many strikeouts (19) as walks.

Catcher Ryan Campos, Class Low-A Palm Beach: As Palm Beach’s starting catcher in a 9-4 win over St. Lucie, Campos went two-for-four with two doubles, two RBIs, and a walk. The second of his two doubles came on a batted ball that had a 101.4 exit velocity and led to an RBI. The 21-year-old’s two-hit game improved him to a .316 average and a .403 on-base percentage through his first 16 games as a pro. Campos, a former fourth-round pick from this year’s MLB draft, owns a .771 OPS and has driven in 11 runs over his first 67 plate appearances in the minors.

Right-handed pitcher Nolan Sparks, Class Low-A Palm Beach: The Cardinals’ 13th-round pick in this year’s draft completed two scoreless innings of relief on 20 pitches. Sparks struck out two batters and did not allow a hit or a walk in his relief outing. Sparks, a Division III product from the University of Rochester, had a 54% whiff rate with the four-pitch mix he displayed against St. Lucie. Sparks got five swings-and-misses on his sinker and two on his cutter. After getting drafted last July, Sparks has made five appearances (all relief outings) and totaled seven innings of work. Sparks, 22, has allowed four runs (two earned) and struck out seven batters since beginning his minor league career.

When the Cardinals begin a three-game set in Minneapolis on Friday night against the Twins, the game won't air on any traditional television channels.

Fans will have to navigate to Apple TV+ to watch the game, which begins at 7:10 p.m. Central time at the Twins' Target Field.

Apple streams doubleheaders on Fridays throughout the season, and this marks the Cardinals' fourth appearance on Apple this season, most recently last month against the Cubs.

Wayne Randazzo will be on play-by-play with analyst Dontrelle Willis and sideline reporter Heidi Watney. Ted Barrett and Brian Gorman will join in to explain the rules and calls.

Apple’s pregame show begins at 5 p.m. Friday with Lauren Gardner, former Cardinal Xavier Scruggs and Russell Dorsey.

Apple also airs the Cincinnati Reds-Pittsburgh Pirates game, which begins at 5:40 p.m. Central on Friday.

How to watch

Apple TV+ charges $9.99 monthly for its services but new and returning subscribers can access a two-month free trial.

Apple's MLB games are available on the Apple TV+ app on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV 4K and Apple TV HD, Windows PC, smart TVs, streaming devices and cable set-top boxes. They also can be accessed on the internet at , including on Android, Windows PC and Chrome OS devices.

The , per Apple, on how to watch its MLB streaming productions:

• Establish an Apple TV+ subscription and update to the latest software.
• Sign in with your Apple ID.
• Set up the Apple TV app if you’re using a streaming device or game console.
• Open the Apple TV+ app or go to the website.
• Go to the search tab.
• Select Apple TV+ Major League Baseball.
• Select a game.
• Select watch.

to Friday's Cardinals-Twins game.