ST. LOUIS — Back from across the border, where they could not lose their offensive baggage, the Cardinals found a way to make the most of a few hits with runners in scoring position.

They didn’t need many.

Opposite Pittsburgh Pirates rookie sensation Paul Skenes, Andre Pallante pitched seven shutout innings and piloted the Cardinals toward a 4-0 victory Monday night at Busch Stadium. On the same evening they could officially be eliminated from the National League Central race, the Cardinals found some footing after a misspent weekend in Toronto. They turned a series of ground balls into Nolan Arenado’s key RBI single against Skenes, and they sparked a genuine rally without a ball leaving the infield and Pedro Pages’ single in the seventh doubled their runs and added some cushion.

By the time Brendan Donovan added an RBI double in the eighth inning, the Cardinals had cobbled together more than enough offense to reward Pallante (7-8) for his superb start.

On Back to the Future night at Busch Stadium — with its co-creator, writer and University City native Bob Gale in attendance, complete with a No. 88 jersey — Pallante continued his bid to show how he fits into the Cardinals’ future.

He offers no hint of returning to his past.

Few members of the Cardinals’ roster have changed or advanced for the better their spot in the organization’s plans than Pallante. He turned a step back in time — a return to the minors after years with the big league bullpen — into a reinvention. Pallante worked on new ways to challenge right-handed batters, tightened his breaking pitch, and resurfaced in the majors as a starter — arguably the Cardinals’ most consistent over the second half.

As injured starters returned, he earned a chance to remain in the rotation — and rewarded the Cardinals’ choice Monday. Pallante outdueled Skenes for total strikes by setting a new career high with nine, and an inning after Skenes departed his start, Pallante slipped free of trouble in a way that underscored the hold he has on his current (and future?) role.

The Blue Jays swept the Cardinals this past weekend by aggravating a season-long issue — the Cardinals’ performance with runners in scoring position. The Cardinals went 2 for 27 (.074) in the series and plunged to 7 for 64 (.109) in their previous three series. Lacking from their offense all season has been “damage” with those opportunities. It was again Monday, and with the bases loaded in the seventh, no outs and a chance to turn the game into a laugher, the Cardinals failed to get a ball out of the infield. But Arenado’s single found a seam for a lead earlier in the game, Pages’ hotshot grounder found a line for another run, and when Donovan doubled the Cardinals had a hold on the game.

Pallante tightened it.

Pallante’s deft escape

A career strikeout that got him out of the seventh inning punctuated a start where Pallante outlasted a young phenom whose career so far has been defined by strikeouts.

Masyn Winn’s double-clutch and misplay on a running throw put the Pirates’ threat in motion. Bryan De La Cruz reached on an infield single, but he advanced when Winn’s throw went past first base and the ball lodged between the rolled-up tarp and wall. Pallante walked the next batter, and the Cardinals allowed an uncontested stolen base. Pittsburgh eventually had two runners in scoring position with two outs.

Pallante sank any chance they had.

The right-hander bent an 85.5-mph slider toward the outside of the strike zone. Jared Triolo could only stare as Pages framed the pitch by going with its break right to the edge of the strike zone. That strikeout ended the inning, stranded the two runners and gave Pallante his new career high for strikeouts in an appearance.

Big blast (foul), small ball (fair)

The loudest, longest contact of the inning produced nothing more than a souvenir in the distant, upper-deck reaches beyond left field at Busch Stadium.

But what happened during that at-bat turned into a run.

Early in what became a nine-pitch at-bat for Paul Goldschmidt, the Cardinals’ first baseman turned on a breaking ball that hovered over the plate — and put well over the wall. Goldschmidt’s launch on Skenes’ 85.8-mph sweeping slider carried it near the foul pole and into the third deck of seats that loom over left field. Ruled a foul ball in real time, a crew chief review confirmed the ball traveled quite high and quite far but was just enough left of the poll to be quite foul.

Yet, throughout his exchange with Goldschmidt, Skenes kept showing attention to Alec Burleson — and that would prove costly.

A reconsideration by the official scorer several innings later turned the error Burleson reached on into a base hit that glanced off the shortstop’s glove. That meant, in hindsight, Skenes retired 10 consecutive batters to begin his evening before Burleson’s single ended the no-hit bid before it gathered steam. Skenes made two attempts during Goldschmidt’s at-bat to pick Burleson off first base.

Neither were successful.

Due to Major League Baseball’s relatively new rules, if Skenes tried a third time, he better get Burleson out or he’d give Burleson a base. After the eighth pitch to Goldschmidt, Skenes spun and fired to first again — unsuccessfully. Considered a new-rule balk, Skenes gave Burleson the base he was trying to keep him from taking.

Skenes’ next pitch, his ninth of the at-bat, was a 100-mph fastball to Goldschmidt that the Cardinals’ No. 3 hitter scalded up the middle for a groundout.

Instead of a double play and the end of an inning, Burleson stood safe at third.

He came home easily on Arenado’s two-out single up the middle. Arenado’s 67th RBI of the season came when he swung at a 3-0 pitch from Skenes for a base hit.

The change by the official scorer that awarded Burleson a single meant the inning would ding Skenes with an earned run. It was already a deserved run.

NL Central’s future presences

There likely isn’t enough room for voters to fit both of them on their National League Rookie of the Year ballots in the coming weeks, but they will take up space in the division for years.

Cardinals shortstop Winn is one of the league leaders among rookies when it comes to Wins Above Replacement (WAR) for position players, and Skenes is both the leader for rookie pitchers in WAR — and fistfuls of other statistics — as well as a leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year Award. Late charges by outfielders Jackson Merrill of San Diego and Jackson Chourio of Milwaukee have provided challengers for Skenes and leapfrogged Winn for his hold on the WAR. In the NL, Winn (3.2 WAR) is behind Merrill (4.5), Chourio (3.8), and San Francisco shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald (3.5).

Skenes, the NL’s starter for the All-Star Game, has a 3.6 WAR.

There are 30 voters — two per NL city — for the annual Jackie Robinson NL Rookie of the Year Award, and ballots are only three lines long. Winn’s claim is rooted in defense, though his oncoming years of duels with Skenes will be about offense.

In three at-bats against the right-hander Monday night, Winn grounded out in his first at-bat, lasered a liner to the shortstop in his second at-bat, and singled in his third. His one-out single in the sixth inning started a threat that Skenes’ squelched with a strikeout of Goldschmidt. That was Skenes’ seventh and final strikeout.

He turned a one-run game over to the bullpen after the sixth.

His first replacement failed to retire a batter.

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