The friendship between this year's top two NL MVP candidates

Batman has Robin. Tom has Jerry. McCartney had Lennon — and Goldy has Arenado.

Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado might have arrived in St. Louis two seasons apart, but they quickly became linked as the dynamic duo manning the two corners of the Cardinals infield. Both have won multiple Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, and this season they could pull off a rare feat: becoming the first teammates to finish 1-2 in MVP voting since Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent 22 years ago.

«When you're in the moment, you try not to sit back too much but there's times I'm at home and realize this is pretty fun, what we're doing,» Arenado said recently. «Our 3-4 hole is good and we're playing good defense.»

The pair has been better than good this season. They rank first and second in the National League in slugging and have combined for 65 home runs and 224 runs driven in, which is nearly a third of St. Louis' total runs scored this season. Goldschmidt leads the NL in OPS+ and total bases; Arenado has struck out just 71 times, by far the least of anyone in baseball with 30 or more home runs.

«It's nice to know, when I've struggled,» Goldschmidt said, «he's coming up next and will get the job done, or vice versa.»

Goldschmidt, who arrived in St. Louis before the 2019 season, first made a name for himself with the Arizona Diamondbacks; Arenado, who became a star with the Colorado Rockies, came over in the 2020 offseason.

Both landed in St. Louis after their previous teams had gone through turnover and turmoil. Though they might share the spotlight more than they had before, they now have one another to depend on — and they each have a deep understanding for what the other is going through.

«He made the transition here really easy,» Arenado