Jordan Walker is My Son and My Dad

Jordan Walker has spent the last two weeks doing things we've never seen him do before. Through 12 games, he's leading Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani in fWAR, he launched a 459-foot grand slam to dead center off an 88 mph fastball, and — maybe most telling — he finally reacted to a called strike three in the box. For the first time in years, Jordan Walker looks like he cares, and it's showing up everywhere on the field.

We also check in on JJ Wetherholt, who would be the story of the Cardinals' first two weeks if Walker wasn't on fire. Five walks vs. five strikeouts in week two, the best defensive range of any second baseman in baseball, and looking every bit the player we hoped he'd be. Plus: Gorman is fading, Victor Scott still hasn't taken a walk, and the starting rotation had a rough week from top to bottom.

On the news side: the Cardinals finally finished the Sonny Gray trade, a Pozo rant, the Joe Adell three-home-run-robbery game, Konnor Griffin's nine-year $140M extension with the Pirates and what it means for a JJ Wetherholt deal, and a preview of the Red Sox and Guardians series.

Ben also reports back from the Coors Field front lines with his field review of the Aramark pizza donut, including how long he had to wait, how many pepperonis were on it, and why donut holes are a structural problem in pizza engineering.

We close out with another round of Theme Night or Dream Night, where Ben has to guess which wacky Busch Stadium promo nights are real and which ones Nate made up.