ST. LOUIS — A day that began with a celebration of the past – trophies won and redcoats worn – and recognition of two players nearing the end of their remarkable runs with the Cardinals became a game that affirmed that repeated more recent history.
Adam Wainwright picked up where he left off.
Tyler O’Neill continued his lift off.
The Cardinals punctuated a rousing afternoon at a full-house Busch Stadium with a 9-0 opening day victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Wainwright pitched six scoreless innings on his way to the 100th victory of his career at Busch III. O’Neill hit a three-run homer in the second inning and drove home the Cardinals’ first four runs of the season. He finished with five RBIs to tie a career high and become only the third Cardinal in history with that many on opening day.
After waking up Thursday morning to the tapping of a cardinal at his window – no joke, he swears – Oliver Marmol debuted as the club’s new manager with a victory, and the Cardinals sent Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols into the final seasons of their career with more than a parade of Ford Mustangs and trucks.
Despite being fixtures in the lineup for more than a season, Tommy Edman and Dylan Carlson had never played an opening day at Busch in front of a sold-out crowd.
The return of Pujols, the retirement of Molina, and the presence of 16 members of the team’s Hall of Fame brought a sellout crowd of 46,256 to Busch. Pujols, who signed with the Cardinals this spring after 10 years out west, was greeted with an ovation upon in his introduction before the game and as he came to the plate for his first at-bat. He doffed his batting helmet to the crowd. Molina and Wainwright both participated in the greeting of the redcoat Hall of Famers before ducking out to the bullpen to warm up for the game.
As Molina readied before first pitch, a message from his son was played on the scoreboard.
So it went during the pomp and prelude with first pitch, as the Cardinals tapped a vein of nostalgia and let it go. The team had 50 members of the military present the flag – 50, of course, for Wainwright’s No. 50 as he started his record seventh home opener.
The 40-year-old right-hander then got nine outs from the first 10 batters he faced. He did not walk a batter in sixth inning, and he extended his scoreless inning streak against the Pirates to 32 consecutive.
Success never gets old.
The Cardinals struck for four runs before Pirates starter J. T. Brubaker could get his sixth out. The first three batters in the Cardinals’ lineup reached base in the first inning, and the middle of the order had multiple cracks at putting the Cardinals ahead, big, early. Leadoff hitter Dylan Carlson hit a fly ball that got caught in the wind and veered down into fair territory, out of the reach of Pirates’ third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. Paul Goldschmidt followed with the first of his opening day record four walks, and then Carlson scored from second on O’Neill’s infield single.
The Cardinals would not add to the 1-0 lead, leaving the first inning with the bases loaded after Molina grounded out.
The second was more fruitful.
An infield single from Harrison Bader to start the inning and a two-out walk from Goldschmidt to end it, put O’Neill against Brubaker for a second time in as many innings. The Cardinals’ left fielder, who set career highs in 2021 for almost every significant offensive category, drilled a pitch 396 feet into the left-field seats for the Cardinals’ first homer of 2022. Bader would score in the sixth inning on Carlson’s sacrifice to extend the lead to 5-0 while Wainwright was still on the mound.
For the most part, the game was a clinic on what the Cardinals did well all of last season (Wainwright and defense) and what Marmol insists they’ll do better this season (offense).
It also highlighted how long a year it could be for the Bucs.
Hours after reportedly agreeing to the biggest contract in Pittsburgh history, surpassing a contract that’s almost 22 years old, Ke’Bryan Hayes missed the fly ball on the first play of the game, struck out in his first at-bat of season, and did not finish the second inning. He left the game with spasms in his left forearm. The team said that he’s day to day. Pujols twice reached base as a result of an error by a Pirates’ infielder, and two other times the Cardinals were able to get a runner on base when a play was not made by a Pittsburgh defender.
Brubaker needed 26 pitches to get through the first inning, and at one point in the second inning he was averaging 10 pitches per out. He didn’t see the start of the fourth inning. The Pirates’ second reliever into the game didn’t finish a second batter as right-hander Duane Underwood Jr. had to leave in the middle of Edman’s at-bat with a hamstring injury.
The Cardinals bookended their scoring with four more runs in the eighth inning. Edman and Nolan Arenado hit their first home runs of the season. O’Neill added a sacrifice fly to his collection of RBIs for the day. Goldschmidt capped a day where he reached base five times and scored on Arenado’s two-run homer over the left-field wall.
