The slugging is spread out.

Indeed, the Birds hit a lot of homers. As Jhonny told the Post-Dispatch’s Rick Hummel this weekend: “That’s good. They go far.”

For comparison, the Mets come to town third in NL homers (162). But only 1-through-6 have 18 or more homers, while the seventh spot has produced just six and the eighth spot has produced 11.

Of course, the course of a season seldom goes as planned, and it’s startling that starter Michael Wacha and closer Trevor Rosenthal struggled and are now both on the disabled list.

But when you talk about magical seasons, the storyline is oft intertwined with late-season stardust. Additions such as Larry Walker, Will Clark and Cesar Cedeno, or Marc Rzepczynski, Chuck Finley and Wacha himself are part of remember-when lore. Well, there’s the ascension of Alex Reyes, and that fastball that would be pulled over on the Autobahn. And Luke Weaver, who struggled this weekend with efficiency, but pitches unafraid and surely will start big games in September.

Now, one problem facing the Cardinals is they’ll have to play a lot in St. Louis. Their next six games are at home, where the Cards are 28-33. Only four teams in baseball have fewer home wins. Those four teams are not good at baseball.