Cardinals News: Goldschmidt scratched from home opener lineup

Nothing will hurt the excitement of the St. Louis Cardinals home opener, but Paul Goldschmidt is a late scratch to the starting lineup.

For the first time in a long time, fans are walking into Busch Stadium for a St. Louis Cardinals game.

There may be less than half capacity in the stands for the home opener on Thursday, but they will likely be loud and rowdy, excited for the return of baseball.

While the festivities will no doubt be great, the Cardinals will be without one of their main contributors for at least the first game against the Milwaukee Brewers. Around three hours before game time, the Cards announced their lineup without Paul Goldschmidt.

Fans who don’t immediately realize that Goldy is out with a back injury will probably have strong feelings about seeing Matt Carpenter at first base instead of Goldy. To this point this season, Carpenter has gone 0-8, looking very similar to his spring stat line (2-37).

Carpenter has looked better in his last two starts against Miami than he did for most of the spring, but the lineup will definitely be weaker without the team’s first baseman in the lineup.

So far this year, Goldy has yet to hit a homer but has eight hits in 26 at-bats including two RBI. It’s unclear how bad Goldschmidt’s back tightness is, but that is actually the ailment that has plagued Carpenter in the past, part of the reason for his backslide in recent years.

I’m not insinuating that Carpenter and Goldschmidt are following similar paths, but it isn’t great to see. Per Goold, the “extent of the soreness was not clarified by the team.” Ideally, we hear more soon.

The Brewers will be the Cardinals’ next big test this early season as Milwaukee will be one of the other teams fighting for the NL Central crown. In the end, the horrid Friday off day might actually help Goldy get back for the final two games of the series this weekend.