ST. LOUIS -- One of the reasons nobody seems to know that the St. Louis Cardinals have had the second-most-prolific offense in the National League this season is that so much of their production has come from people no one has heard of.

Opposing teams usually get the message before the public, of course, since they have to figure out who those guys are to get them out.

His early-season success has vaulted Aledmys Diaz toward the top of the lineup, and so far, so good for the Cardinals. Scott Kane/Getty Images

On Thursday night, the Cardinals finally thrust their emerging young talent into the spotlight, if a bit bashfully. Manager Mike Matheny plucked Aledmys Diaz from the nether reaches of his lineup and put him where he profiles, in the No. 2 spot. He used one of his best pure hitters, Stephen Piscotty, at cleanup -- a wormhole in the team’s lineup all season -- and the results were immediate in a 13-7 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

One game doesn’t prove a thing, but everyone seemed to think it was a good look, and Matheny indicated he might give it another whirl or two, or at least he started to do so. He doesn’t like announcing the next day’s starting lineup the night before, but after the top four hitters in his lineup combined to go 8-for-18 with four doubles, a home run and nine RBIs, it seemed like kind of a silly question anyway. It was asked twice.

“Yeah, this is, uh ... I don’t know. We’ll see,” Matheny said. “Stay tuned.”

As Diaz was batting .376 with a 1.051 OPS in his first 37 major league games, it wasn’t just the fans becoming attuned to where he was hitting, typically in the No. 7 or 8 spot.

“Yeah, we all kind of wondered,” Matt Carpenter said. “Eventually, this guy’s going have to hit in a little more prominent spot in the lineup. We knew he was capable of it, but at the same time, you don’t want to mess with something if it’s not broken. It makes sense both ways.”

Matheny said he will give the 25-year-old shortstop more prominent opportunities each time he sees something he likes. After Diaz was on base twice, scored twice and drove in a run, that would seem to apply to Thursday, his second game in the top third of the lineup. It might have been related or it might not, but Carpenter had the big night, clubbing three extra-base hits and driving in six runs. The fact the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter has driven in 32 runs already speaks to the depth of the team’s lineup, including the fact that Diaz was getting on base so frequently at the bottom of the order.

“Things have been clicking, plus you’re looking at guys start to make a name for themselves, like Piscotty and Diaz. When the league gets wind of that, they’ve got to pick somebody you don’t want to face. Someone’s going to make you pay for it,” Carpenter said. “It’s nice to have those guys swinging the bat well.”

Going into Thursday, Cardinals cleanup hitters had a .605 OPS, worst in the majors. The major league average was .789. Piscotty went 3-for-4 with two RBI doubles.

It was a good day in what has been a good two months for the offense. The Cardinals had a .321 hitter, Yadier Molina, batting sixth for them. They had one of their most powerful players, Randal Grichuk, batting seventh, at least until his lower back tightened up. The Cardinals have a swarming quality to their offense these days, like one of those American League lineups of the early 2000s.

They’ve needed it, too, because their starting pitching has been nowhere near as good as it was in the previous few seasons. Michael Wacha had some success striking out Rockies on high fastballs in the early innings and perhaps that was his undoing. The Rockies batted around in the fourth, Wacha’s last inning. He has had a rough May, going 0-3 with a 5.32 ERA.