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.

The pitching got very unlucky but still needs strikeout stuff

If you look at the box score, it looks like the Cardinals’ pitching was awful today. In reality, though, the Cardinals experienced death by a thousand paper cuts, mostly pitching well but continuously getting beat by blood singles and ground balls that found their way through the infield.

That’s not how most games go.

If the Cardinals’ had gotten beaten around by hard-hit balls, extra-base hits, giving up a ton of walks, or huge blasts from the Blue Jays thumpers, I would be writing a letter to John Mozeliak myself to say they need pitching ASAP. In all reality, I was pleasantly surprised by the way the club navigated the Blue Jays lineup, and felt like they could have easily given up three or four fewer runs.

Would you believe the Cardinals’ pitching staff struck out more batters than the Blue Jays today? The Cardinals got eleven Blue Jays out on strikes Thursday, while Toronto pitchers sat down just six Cardinals via the strikeout. The problem for St. Louis is nothing new though – they need to find a way to strike out guys in big spots, such as when runners are in scoring position. The Blue Jays put so many balls in play today, and when you do that, good things tend to happen. Jordan Walker was taken advantage of in right field today, misplaying a few balls and making some bad decisions with his throws into third base and home.

Had Mikolas not experienced the level of “unluck” he had today and gotten through more than 3.2 innings, the bullpen would have had a lot less strain on it. Covering 5 and 2/3 innings in a game is no small task, and the bullpen handled the job well for the most part, experiencing a lot of the same “soft-contact” issues.

Here’s the rub. Three of your best relievers, Andre Pallante, Jordan Hicks, and Ryan Helsley, combined to face nineteen Blue Jays, striking out just one of them. You cannot get by the late innings in today’s game without finding a way to generate swings and misses.

Missed opportunities cost the team runs and gave the Blue Jays more chances to score.

It’s hard to fault the Cardinals; offense in a game where they put up nine runs, but one could point to a 3-15 performance with runners in scoring position as one way the club could have put the Blue Jays away rather than giving them chances to regain the lead.

Honestly, what was most frustrating to me was Andrew Knizner’s pop-up on a bunt attempt in the bottom of the 8th inning. After Willson Contreras exited the game with a right knee contusion, Knizner came up and attempted to move Arenado to third on a bunt, but failed to do so. You cannot make mistakes like that in big spots like that, and it will further fans' concerns over Knizner’s value to this team.

Walker’s defense today reinforced concerns from many about whether or not he would be ready to manage the responsibilities required of a Major League outfielder. It’s one game, and maybe first-game jitters got the best of him, but you can argue he helped contribute to a few of the Blue Jays runs today as well.

You can’t beat yourself when facing contending teams like the Blue Jays, and unfortunately, the Cardinals did a bit of that today.