What to take away from the game today

Today, on opening day, the Cardinals put in a solid effort, yet they came away with a loss in extra innings. There were many encouraging, positive aspects about the way that the team came together for Opening Day, but there were certainly also a few causes for concern. Let’s dissect the Cardinals first game of the year by looking at five important aspects of the game.

1. Albert Pujols: The subject of in depth off season contract talks and usual opening day performer, the Albert Pujols that we all know and love did not really show up in this game. Starting the year off with a .000 average, not only did Pujols go 0 for 5, but he grounded into three double plays, and was ultimately the cause of eight of the Cardinals allotted 33 outs in the game. Despite Albert’s disappointing performance, it is much too early to be concerned. The pressure of all the off season hype that he received may have gotten to him a little bit, but mark my words, he’ll be back and better than ever in no time.

2. David Freese: Freese was 1-5 from the plate today and did not do much from inside the batters box. What I loved about his game today was his defensive perfection. While the middle infielder’s were making errors that led to runs, Freese made two plays that saved extra-base hits. One was a beautiful backhand on a grounder to the hot corner and the other was a leaping catch on a ball smacked towards the line.

3. Timely Errors From the Middle Infielders: This subject concerns me a little. Without the dropped ball from Schumaker on a base-stealing attempt in the fifth (which led to the Padres second run) and Theriot’s drop of a relay throw from right field in the 11th (which led to the Padres fourth and later fifth runs) the Cardinals would have won the game–hands down. This type of defensive play cannot be acceptable moving forward this season from the supposed defensive leaders of a team–the middle infielders.

4. Chris Carpenter: I was very pleased with Carp’s performance today. I’ve been saying for the past week that this damaged pitching staff needed its leader to go out and set the precedent high, and that’s just what he did. He gave up two hits and two earned runs on seven innings pitched, conceding two walks but striking out four, for a 2.57 ERA. In my opinion, Carpenter did enough to come away from the game with a win, but instead he will go into his next start with a no decision under his belt and an 0-0 record.

5. Solid Offensive Effort: In today’s game, the heavy hitters of the top of the order showed great potential. Theriot seemed like he was comfortable in the lead-off role, and he’ll have to be good each game in order to get things going offensively for the Cards. He is certainly an upgrade in offensive production for the Cardinals at the shortstop position. Next, Colby Rasmus showed signs off starting a breakout year, crushing a triple in his first at-bat, going 2-3 and scoring one of the Cardinal’s three runs. Pujols we have already addressed. Holliday played extremely well, accounting for all three of the Cardinals’ runs, going 3-4 with one run scored and 2 RBI. One of these RBI came on a pivotal homerunin the eight inning to put the Cardinals up 3-2. It was also nice to finally see Berkman in action after all the anticipation. He went 2-4 and also scored a run for the Cardinals. Looking at the days that these four guys had, it would seem that the Cardinals on a whole would net more than three runs total, but that’s just what kind of a day it was in Busch Stadium. The offense as a whole came and went in spurts, and the reason that they only scored three runs was because there was not one big breakout inning. The Cardinals would start rallies but not finish them correctly. And a lot of that comes back to Pujols. 

Sometimes, the first game of the year can show you more than you might think about the impending season. Let’s hope that the Cardinals won’t make a habit out of blowing tight games this year, and that starts with closer Ryan Franklin. Two out bottom of the ninth and he lets up a game tying solo shot? That cannot happen. The Cards might be on the hunt for a new closer, perhaps internally, sooner rather than later.