St. Louis Cardinals: Opening Day reactions after a tough loss

Well, it hasn’t been the ideal start to the 2019 season for the St. Louis Cardinals as they fall 5-4 to the Brewers on Opening Day. Miles Mikolas didn’t produce ideal results and the heart of the order was relatively quiet. However, there were some encouraging signs today.

Opening Day finally has arrived. Unfortunately, your St. Louis Cardinals weren’t able to pull out the win. What follows are my initial gut reactions and a breakdown of how the game went.

For one, Miles Mikolas wasn’t as bad as the final line shows. He only gave up 5 hits and 1 walk over 5 innings. It just so happened that 3 of those hits went over the wall. The home runs are uncharacteristic of Mikolas, who figures to be a major cog in this St. Louis Cardinals team. The takeaway is that Mikolas didn’t labor too often this afternoon and kept the bases relatively empty.

Another nice thing to see was a solid performance from the bottom half of the lineup, with Kolten Wong, Dexter Fowler, and Harrison Bader going a combined 4-12, 4 runs scored, and 4 RBIs. These are all players with something to prove in 2019, so this was quite nice to see. Especially the two dingers from Wong, who provided most of the offense today.

Bader and Wong are proving that they are Major League hitters and Dex is proving that he has something left in the tank (the Cards have $16.5 million reasons per year to let him try). Wong, especially, is nearing the end of his leash on the “oh, he’s young but talented, let him keep trying!” bandwagon. Wong is 27 years old and hit above .265 once. Hopefully, he can turn things around this year. Thursday was a great start.

Overall, it was a good effort by the Cards and they came up inches short (literally) at the end of the game. What we saw today should only be improved on as the year goes on as the middle of the order heats up and produces the way it should.