ST. LOUIS -- Watching on television, it would have been easy to surmise that some of the sounds coming this weekend from Kauffman Stadium resembled boos. The Cardinals took five out of the six games against the Royals this season, with the I-70 Series firmly belonging to the club toward the east.

Instead, listening ears required nuance. They were not boos, but “Noooooooooots.”

That’s been part of the quick ascension of Cardinals outfielder Lars Nootbaar both up the organizational depth chart and into the hearts of those around St. Louis. Any time Nootbaar is announced to bat, or when he caps off said at-bat with a hit or makes a play in right field, he’s showered with sounds from the stands.

They’re not boos, just “Noooots.”

It caught Nootbaar off-guard, too. He’s the youngest of three kids, so all the nicknames were taken up by the time he got to the age when monikers are typically doled out. His brother, Nigel (a former Orioles farmhand), went by “Nige,” and his sister, Nicole, earned the sought-after "Nootie," among other variations.

Lars was in nickname limbo. Then Busch Stadium learned of his legend, and the fans embraced it.

“I've never gotten a chant like that before,” Nootbaar said in Kansas City. “I really enjoy it. You know, obviously, any sort of acknowledgment that you get is cool, but hearing the crowd like that is pretty awesome.”

Nootbaar made two starts in Kansas City in right field in lieu of an injured Dylan Carlson. Those represented just the eighth and ninth starts of his career, though he’s been able to be an impactful left-handed option off the bench otherwise.

It’s been earned; he batted .308 with a .900 OPS at Triple-A Memphis this year. The flash of power at the Majors, though, has been a sight to be seen.

Nootbaar was able to get back his first career home run ball, a pinch-hit bomb in Pittsburgh, by working an autographed swap with the fan who caught it. After the game, he said he wasn’t sure what he’d do with it -- he just might have to try to keep it out of the mouths of his two yellow labrador retrievers at home.

His second home run ball? Well, that one already was fed to the fishes (or at least the fountains at Kauffman Stadium) 449 feet into right-center.

Nootbaar waited 29 at-bats for his first big league bomb. Then he found two in consecutive games in which he racked up only one at-bat in each contest.

“It's a great experience,” Nootbaar said. “Something I’ve always dreamed of, being in the big leagues. But now being able to help a team like this and get some experience out of it has been great.”

“Lars has done great. I think he’s very capable of being a good big league player,” said manager Mike Shildt. “I don’t think there’s any question about that."

Nootbaar said the likes of Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, Paul Goldschmidt and the Cardinals’ crop of wily veterans has made his time in the big leagues an easy transition. The elder statesmen has made the Cards’ described group of “young bucks” -- Nootbaar, Carlson and Andrew Knizner -- comfortable to voice their personalities in the dugout, keeping loose a team that has started to find its footing in August.

“That's super important,” Shildt said. “We like to play, guys like to play. It’s a long season, guys are grinding in a little bit, getting after it, but it's important that you have the group enjoy playing with each other, enjoy playing baseball, enjoy the energy of it.”

One mentor has stuck out in particular for Nootbaar. Nolan Arenado -- a fellow “SoCal boy” -- has shared many a public laugh with Nootbaar in the dugout. After Arenado’s homer on Saturday, Nootbaar was at the top of the dugout steps to welcome him. During Friday’s series opener, Nootbaar and Arenado were caught on the Bally Sports Midwest broadcast giving each other a friendly ribbing.

Apparently, per Arenado's description, the discussion was centered around if balls travel better through humidity or clear air. Whichever way the hearted debate played out, it sent a reverberation of laughs around the clubhouse.

And it sent a combined five homers between the pair out of the yard in the past week's six-game win streak. With them, plenty of “Noooooots” in tow -- even on the road.