Cardinals: Paper cuts, missed opportunities, other Opening Day Reactions

Reactions to the Cardinals Opening Day loss to the Blue Jays

The St. Louis Cardinals had an eventful Opening Day this year, falling to the Toronto Blue Jays 10-9 in a back-and-forth offensive game.

While this was just the first game of a 162-game season, there are some takeaways we can have about this Cardinals’ team. Some may turn out to be overreactions, while others may prove to be true as the season goes on. This was one of those games that you need to look beyond that box score to understand, which we will get into here.

Here are my reactions to the Cardinals’ Opening Day loss.

The Cardinals’ offense will be the best in baseball this year.

It feels a little weird to say the losing team’s offense was more impressive today, but in my opinion, the Cardinals showed why their lineup is ready to be the league’s best in 2023.

Up and down the lineup today, this team was dangerous. Every inning, the team had the potential to put up runs, and did so despite the pitching giving up run after run throughout the game. The club finished with fifteen team hits and six walks, a recipe for wins in almost every single game. The top of the lineup did their jobs today, so did the middle of the order, and the bottom of the lineup kept the pressure on the Blue Jays.

The team put up five runs on a Cy Young candidate in Alek Manoah and chased him early in the game. They put up an additional four runs on the bullpen as well. Every single hitter gave competitive at-bats and got on base today. The team had four extra-base hits today, including Tyler O’Neill and Brendan Donovan both hitting two-run home runs, as well as doubles from Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt.

The worst thing that could’ve happened today would have been the offense being shut down once again by an elite right-handed pitcher, not being able to chase him from the game, and then bullpen matchups getting the best of them. Instead, this lineup showed it’s ready to carry this team, something this pitching staff is going to need.