First and foremost, happy Opening Day baseball lovers. What a wonderful day across a wonderful sport, and the game that happened in St. Louis was nothing short of entertaining, resulting in a Blue Jays 10-9 win in a back and forth contest.
And what a memory we got right out the gate, as Adam Wainwright sung the national anthem and absolutely nailed it!!
The Jays got an early start, pegging Mikolas for 3 runs on 5 hits in the 1st inning. Springer and Bichette opened the game with back-to-back singles before a Guerrero fly out. Varsho and Kirk then delivered with back-to-back hits (rbi double & 2R single) to drive in three early runs.
Mik would only last 2.1IP past the opening inning, striking out five batters over that period for 6 total before leaving with one out in the 4th.
The Cardinals would eventually tie the game at 5-5 in the bottom of the 4th. A 2R HR from Prince Tyler O’Neill cut it to a one run deficit in the bottom of the 3rd (105.2mph exit velocity, 403 feet!!)!! The HR for Tyler ties a major league record for most HR hit on Opening Day in a career.
Brendan Donovan matched it with a 2R HR into the Cards pen on a good slider in the bottom of the 4th, tying the game at 5-5.
Zack Thompson worked a filthy 1.2IP in relief of Mikolas, striking out three batters while posting a 60% CSW% with his curveball.
VerHagen and Pallante would tag team the 6th before a Goldy 2R single gave the Cardinals a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the 6th. Mayza would come in relief of Swanson to face Donovan and Noot, little did the Blue Jays know, that doesn’t matter with those two. Donovan and Noot collected back-to-back singles before Goldy ripped and rbi single to RF for the lead.
Jordan Walker would drive in the go-ahead run in the bottom of the 7th, reaching on a, bases loaded, fielders choice to score Knizner (replaced Contreras in the 8th after bruising his knee on Jordan Hicks sinker) for the one run lead.
Jordan Hicks induced tons of soft contact in the air during his outing, unfortunately most that soft contact found a place to get down. Vladdy would drive a 2R single off Hicks to give the Jays the lead 8-7.
Yimi GarcÃa would get the bottom of the 8th for Toronto, allowing the first three batters to reach base- Noot walk, Goldy double, Nado 2R double for the 9-8 lead.
Ryan Helsley would get the call to close the door on his first game of 2023, but he struggled immediately and things weren’t bound to end well in a nail-biter like this one. Merrifield would work a leadoff walk, Kiermaier followed with a two-strike single on a slider to RF to put runners on the corners, and Springer singled softly to LF, his 3rd extremely soft contact hit of the game, to score Merrifield to tie it.
After Bichette would ground out to Donovan playing in on a force out to Edman at 2B, Vlad would step in to deliver a deep fly ball to CF for an easy sac fly to take the one-run lead, 10-9.
Jordan Romano would get the ball for the Jays in the 9th, getting Edman-Donovan-Nootbaar to go down 1-2-3. Edman and Noot would both be casualties of good sliders, while Donovan tapped out to Merrifield at 2B.
After a three hour and thirty-eight minute affair, pitch clock and all, the Cardinals would drop the season opener to the Blue Jays, 10-9. What an entertaining game, but disappointing result. Good thing is there’s 161 more to get back on track.
The Cardinals have an off-day tomorrow before picking up the final two games vs Toronto on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
Gausman vs Flaherty is on schedule for Saturday, first pitch is scheduled for 1:15pm c/t.
Happy Opening Day, Cheers
Stew
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