Opening Day in St. Louis was a lively and exhilarating success. Pleasant to the eye. Healthy for the heart. An emotional high. By watching the Cardinals charge back from a 7-1 deficit to waylay the Rays by a 9-7 score at Busch Stadium, the ballclub clicked on a surge of neurotransmitters that fired adrenaline, dopamine and norepinephrine through our systems.
For the love of a neurochemical flood … What in the hell am I talking about? While I am not a doctor, and I don’t try to play one here on STL Sports Central, perhaps it is best if I describe it this way: on Opening Day we were jacked up.
The Cardinals promised that they’d be rascals this season. Annoying to the opposition. Frustrating to the other team’s pitching staff. Relentless in competing, exhausting to deal with. An intractable adversary. A thistle in the whistle. Chaim Bloom’s Hydra. All thorns, no roses. These fellers will Marmol-ize you. They are a pain in the ass.
I’ll put my thesaurus away now.
But whatever it is the Cardinals vowed to be in 2026, they emerged from the dugout Thursday afternoon and got the damn thing done. An eight-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning not only erased Tampa Bay’s 7-1 lead, but it turned the Rays into just another group of tourists who experienced a little anxiety in downtown St. Louis.
Anyways, as Tampa Bay manager Kevin Cash said of his mentally jostled relievers:
“Everybody that came in just got to two strikes and then couldn't find those pitches to get [the Cardinals] to chase, expand the zone or put them away, for whatever reason. Give the Cardinals a ton of credit. They had a bunch of big at-bats.”
Kevin Cash …
You’ve Been …
Marmol-ized.
“I think it’s a perfect example of it,” said the Cards manager himself, Oli Marmol-ized. “We promised a louder game. A relentless approach to what we do, and we’re going to continue to hold ourselves to that for 162 [games]. Today’s Day One. But that was a heckuva lot of fun to watch.”
There was so much to like – and so much fun to be had in liking it – that I want to present some stuff from my research-crazy noodle.
Let’s start with the bigger, more universal, stuff.
HOMEGROWN HOMIES
The Cardinals’ nine position players in Thursday’s sting-the-rays victory were unique in a way, because you just don’t see this much in major league baseball in these modern times.
All nine position players were either drafted (8), or signed as an international free agent (1) and developed by the St. Louis Cardinals. None of the nine were traded here. None of the nine signed as a standard MLB free agent to come here. Not one of the nine position players in the STL batting order have played a single game – or an inning, for that matter – for another major-league team.
In the Cardinals’ 9-7 Opening Day comeback over the Rays, the youth-led "rebuild" lineup was almost entirely composed of homegrown talent. In fact, every single hit, run, and RBI in the game was produced by a player drafted or signed and developed by the St. Louis organization.
MLB’s free-agent system went into effect on Dec. 23, 1975. And of course, trades have been going on forever in baseball. So this is really hard to do: go full-blown homegrown with your starting position players. This sort of thing probably happened during the decades before free agency – how often, I don’t know.
Did this happen in the early 1970s, before the advent of free agency? Maybe, but I couldn’t come up with the answer. Assembling such a line up during the post free-agency era (post-1976) is virtually unheard of. It’s remarkable seeing a nine-man cast of homegrown position players in the St. Louis lineup. It will happen many times again in 2026, but reserve utility infielder Ramon Urias (not homegrown) will change the script on days he starts.
Here are the particulars:
Ivan Herrera: international signee, 2016.
Nolan Gorman: 1st round, 2018 draft.
Pedro Pages: 6th round, 2019.
Jordan Walker: 1st round, 2020.
Masyn Winn: 2nd round, 2020.
Alec Burleson: 2nd round, 2020.
Victor Scott II: 5th round, 2022.
Nathan Church: 11th round, 2022.
JJ Wetherholt: 1st round, 2024.
In Thursday’s overthrow of the Rays, The St. Louis Homegrowns produced all 14 of the team’s hits, all nine RBIs, all nine runs scored, two home runs, two sacrifice-fly RBIs, a double, a bunt single, two stolen base and 22 total bases. And they were lethal in that fateful bottom of the 6th.
THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS
The nine STL position players in Thursday’s starting gate made for a remarkably young core that averaged just 24.6 years old. That was largely expected given that Chaim Bloom traded starting position players Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras and Brendan Donovan over the winter. The three have an average age of 32.3 years. And other aging position players have retired or left the Cardinals in recent years including Paul Goldschmidt, Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina, and Tommy Edman.
The “old” men in this 2026 lineup are both 27: Burleson and Pages. Seven are age 25 or younger. When Lars Nootbaar returns from the IL he’ll put some age in the lineup – but not all that much because he just turned 28.
The 2026 STL starting lineup is nearly six years younger than the average age (30.4) of the veteran-heavy 2022 lineup.
MLB SERVICE TIME? NOT MUCH
The average major-league service time for the Cardinals' opening-day hitters was approximately 2 years and 2 days. That’s based on their service time going into the season. That’s nuts. The Cardinals have never put together a lineup so young. I like it because it’s different. I like it because it just reinforces an image I want to have with them: young, hungry, unafraid, unshakeable, and so full of energy and life there will be days, perhaps many days, where these dudes don’t even realize they’re going to lose the game. They won’t accept it. I’ll take that. If you want to see the Cardinals signing mediocre free agents just because you want Bill DeWitt Jr. to spend money … even if it makes no sense whatsoever, well, that’s your jam. It ain’t mine. The time will come for adding payroll; it isn’t now.
Here’s the list, going from the least amount of MLB service time to the most:
Wetherholt, 0.0
Church, 0.60
Pages, 1.045
Scott, 1.16
Winn, 2.04
Herrera, 2.08
Walker, 3.00
Burleson, 3.020
Gorman, 3.130
Baby Birds. Yeah. That fits.
AGE-RELATED HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
This is fun. The Cardinals most recent World Series championship was won in 2011.
The nine position players who started for the Cards against the Rays … well, what were they up to in 2011?
– Pages was 13 years old and in the 8th grade.
– Burleson was 12, and in the 7th grade.
– Herrera was 11, and in 6th grade.
– Gorman was 11, and in the 6th grade.
– Church was 10, and in the 5th grade.
– Scott was 10, and in the 5th grade.
– Walker was 9 and in the 4th grade.
– Winn was 9 and in the 4th grade.
– Wetherholt was 9, and in the 4th grade.
At 13 years old, Pedro Pagés was the only one in the entire starting lineup who was even in middle school.
When David Freese walloped his famous home run to win Game 6 of the 2011 World Series, this 2026 Opening Day lineup was mostly a bunch of elementary school kids. Seven were 11 years old or younger.
On that note … I think it’s appropriate that Wetherholt’s first career big-league homer – which flew 425 feet – landed in Freese Lawn. Very close to the spot where Freese made history.
Matthew Liberatore, who started Game 1, is still a relative lad at age 26. When the Cardinals clinched the 2011 World Series, Libby was nine days shy from his 12th birthday and in the 6th grade.
The average age of this 2026 Opening Day starting lineup during the 2011 World Series was a mere 10.4 years old.
Final note: When the Cardinals won the NL pennant in 2013, the average age of this 2026 Opening Day starting lineup was just 12.4 years old. It is believed that Pagés – and perhaps Burleson – were the only ones old enough to have a driver's permit.
STATS & FACTS FROM THE 1ST WIN
1. One Cardinals’ goal is to have a higher contact rate in 2026. They did a nice job in their first game, putting up an overall contact rate of 80.8% which was the fourth best by a MLB team in its opening game. The contact-rate on strikes (86.2%) was third best among the MLB teams. The Cards also had the third-highest percentage of swinging at strikes (71.6%) and were about league average in chasing pitches out of the zone.
2. The Cardinals took a more aggressive approach at swinging at pitches in Thursday’s win. This surprised me a little – until I looked at the data and saw that STL hitters were thrown the highest percentage of strikes (56%) by any MLB team in its first game. And that’s what they’re supposed to do – it’s the plan – to punish strikes instead of watching them.
3. The Redbirds put up some hellaciously good at-bats in their sixth-inning eruption that plated eight runs. Excluding Victor Scott’s first-pitch bunt single, which was an act designed to surprise, the Cardinals really worked the counts in staging their furious rally. In the other seven hits swatted by the Cardinals in the 6th, those at-bats lasted an average of 4.7 pitches – which is exceptional. And that includes Jordan Walker’s first-pitch double. The other six hits lasted an average of 5.3 pitches. Terrific.
4. In that 6th inning Church had a six-pitch standoff that ended with a two-run single, Pages had an RBI single on the sixth pitch of his at-bat, Burleson had a five-pitch at-bat that ended with a single, Winn had a five-pitch at bat to stroke a double, and Gorman lashed a two-RBI single on the fifth pitch. Wetherholt had a sac-fly RBI on the second pitch, and Herrera lofted a sac-fly RBI on the third pitch. This is excellent hitting.
5. Wetherholt saw 20 pitches in his first five MLB plate appearances, a good average of 4.0 pitches per PA. His first at-bat in the bigs lasted seven pitches, and his first major-league homer came on the third pitch on an 0-2 count. What a hitter. “I think we’ve got something special in JJ,” Burleson told reporters after the game. “I think he’s going to contribute to not only a lot of wins this year but in the future too.”
6. Burleson knows special because he is special. In a follow-up of his superb hitting during spring-training games, Burleson opened the season by going 3 for 4, drawing a walk, and destroying a four-seam fastball for a ruthless 432-foot home run that shattered a 7-7 tie and gave the ‘W’ to St. Louis. Oh, and a nice diving stab defensively. The big man is good around the first-base bag.
7. Burly and JJ smashed their home-run pumpkins on two-strike counts. It was a tremendous day for the Cardinals in that part of the competition. With two strikes the fellers went 8 for 21 (.381) with two homers, a double eight RBIs and a .714 slug.
8. The two rookies, Church and Wetherholt, combined to go 4 for 8 with four RBIs. As mentioned, a solo homer and sac fly RBI for JJ, and a large two-run RBI for Church. Nifty defense at second base by Wetherholt, and Church made a fabulous home-run denying catch. As I keep saying, Church will have a much more prominent role this season than folks expect. JJ? He already has a prominent role … that will only grow. He is a star. Stat: Wetherholt and Church left only two runners on base (combined) during the first win of the season.
9. I don’t care about Oli Marmol’s lineup-card decisions. Especially not this early in the season. The Cardinals scored nine runs, so stop the whining over Masyn Winn batting fourth for the first game of the campaign. Just a heads up: you will see a lot of funky lineups this season, so try and pace yourselves. You can be Sparky Anderson or maybe cosplay Billy Martin when there’s something truly stupid to holler about.
10. Really good game by Victor Scott: three hits, including the perfectly chipped bunt single. Two steals, giving Scott 41 bags in 46 attempts during his MLB career. That 89 percent success rate is among the best in MLB by players that have tried to steal at least 45 bases over the last two-plus seasons.
11. It’s one game, but the quality of the at-bats taken by Nolan Gorman and Jordan Walker was solid in Thursday’s victory. Yeah, there were a couple of chases on pitches out of the zone, but nothing crazy. Walker doubled and scored a run in that explosive 6th inning. He didn’t look jumpy, and the calmness was noticeable. Gorman, who went 2 for 4, had a 90% contact rate overall against the Rays – and 100% connect rate on strikes. Walker also had a 100% connect rate on strikes. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this – if they can stay in the disciplined-mind zone. Gorman and Walker had a combined three hits in eight at-bats with only one strikeout. That’s a good day. But they need many more of them.
Out of words!
Thanks for reading …
Enjoy the weekend …
–Bernie
Bernie was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 2023. During a St. Louis sports-media career that goes back to 1985, he’s won multiple national awards for column writing and sports-talk hosting – and was the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch from 1989 through 2015. Before that Bernie spent a year at the Dallas Morning News, covering the Dallas Cowboys during Tom Landry’s final season (1988) plus the sale of the team to Jerry Jones and the hiring of Jimmy Johnson as coach. Bernie has covered several Baseball Hall of Fame managers during his media career including Tony La Russa, Whitey Herzog, Earl Weaver, Joe Torre and (as an interim) Red Schoendienst. In his career as a beatwriter and columnist, Bernie covered Pro Football Hall of Fame coaches Joe Gibbs, Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Dick Vermeil on a daily basis.
Bernie has covered and written about many great St. Louis sports team athletes including Albert Pujols, Kurt Warner, Brett Hull, Yadier Molina, Adam Wainwright, Jim Edmonds, Marshall Faulk, Scott Rolen, Mark McGwire, Orlando Pace, Isaac Bruce, Torry Holt, Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Al MacInnis, Brian Sutter, Bernie Federko, Chris Pronger, Dan Dierdorf, Jackie Smith and Aeneas Williams. Bernie covered every baseball Cardinals’ postseason game from 1996 through 2014 and was there to chronicle teams that won four NL pennants and two World Series. He provided extensive coverage on the “Greatest Show” St. Louis Rams and has written extensively on the St. Louis Blues, Saint Louis U, and Mizzou football and basketball. Bernie was/is a longtime voter for the Baseball Hall of Fame, Pro Football Hall of Fame, Heisman Trophy and the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame.
You can access his columns, videos and the podcast version of the videos here on STL Sports Central, catch him regularly on KMOX (AM or FM) as part of the Gashouse Gang, Sports Rush Hour, Sports Open Line or Sports On a Sunday Morning shows. And you can catch weekly “reunion” segments here at STL Sports Central featuring Bernie and his longtime friend Randy Karraker.