If there has been a wart in Marcus Stroman’s All-Star caliber contract year drive this season, it’s a walk rate that has crept to a career-high 9.2 percent after four free passes Thursday night; though it’s usually minimized in impact by a consistent ability to generate soft contact on the ground.

If there was a wart to center on in the Cubs’ play behind their ace in the opener of a four-game set with their archrival, it would be the two errors — and another misplay — at third base from Patrick Wisdom, leading to an unearned first inning Cardinals run.

Both conspired to spike Stroman’s pitch count early, driving the Cubs innings leader to the showers an out short of completing four innings, at 99 pitches. But not before a pair of two-run blasts—a Jordan Walker home run on a hanging slurve, a Nolan Arenado two-run double to the wall—broke things open in a four-run Cardinal fourth.

Paul DeJong’s two-run opposite field blast off reliever Michael Rucker in the fifth only reiterated the tone of the evening, which ended with a 7-2 Cubs loss.

The Cubs may not have publicly declared a direction for the looming Aug. 1 trade deadline, but their counterparts for the weekend are avowed sellers. And the Cardinals already entered Thursday within three games of the Cubs in the NL Central standings.

There is a consistently good-to-great track record over Stroman’s nine-year major league career, and a second-best in MLB 57.8 percent ground ball rate to testify to the continued effectiveness of his sinker. Together with a 3.09 ERA, there’s plenty of reason for why he would be a highly coveted trade target if and when the Cubs move him at next month’s trade deadline.

It’s just a shorter-term view where Stroman has a 6.56 ERA over his last five starts, walking 12 hitters in 23 2/3 innings. Stroman has earned the win in just one of these outings, on the heels of a streak of winning seven-straight starts that ended last month. His season ERA is back over 3.00 for the first time in two months.

Stroman’s monstrous first half combined with a breakout season from Justin Steele to make the Cubs’ rotation and playoff hopes look legitimate through the season’s first three months. But acknowledging that, this speed bump to return Stroman’s numbers back toward his career norms has been part of the Cubs entering Thursday night with a 7-8 record in July.

It’s a plateau, and an understandable one for Stroman, who might need another half-dozen outings like Thursday to be considered anything less than what the Cubs were hoping for when they committed $50 million to his right arm just before the MLB lockout in 2021.

But the Cubs needed a big surge this month to justify buying at the deadline and chasing a division title. Nico Hoerner’s cathartic eighth inning grand slam Wednesday night felt like it could be the start of something like that for an up and down Cubs offense.

Thursday night reminded that in baseball, momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.