What a start to the 2025 Major League Baseball season.
The St. Louis Cardinals swept the Minnesota Twins. The Milwaukee Brewers were swept by the juiced torpedo bats of the New York Yankees, beginning the season 0-3. And the Chicago Cubs are 2-4. All is right in the world.
Now of course a three game series is an extremely small sample size. It’s quite literally the smallest drop in the bucket of the impending 162 game season. But if we are being honest, and the good Lord knows I am, I’m pretty damn excited about the season ahead if we continue to play like we did this weekend.
There wasn’t much optimism coming into the season following the team’s ONE free agent signing. The Cards signed veteran relief pitcher Phil Maton to a one-year deal while failing to move Nolan Arenado to a title contender.
And yet despite the shortcomings of the front office, there was still a slight buzz around the young core entering what was supposed to be a “rebuild” or “intermediate” season.
Following an underwhelming Spring Training at the plate, the Cardinals offense wasted no time fending off the doubters this past weekend, outscoring Minnesota 19-6 while smashing five home runs.
Left fielder Lars Nootbaar opened the season in a new role as the Redbirds’ leadoff hitter, and at first glance Oli might be onto something with this move.
Noot is quickly hitting .400 with four RBIs, three runs and one home run, a two-run blast in the second inning of the Cards’ 5-3 Opening Day win over the Twins.
Utility man Brendan Donovan and third baseman Nolan Arenado followed Lars’ hot streak in the 3 and 4 holes respectively with each player hitting safely in all three games of the opening series including a Nado bomb on Opening Day.
At the bottom of the order catchers Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages each picked up where they left off last season, absolutely raking.
Herrera got the start behind the plate on Thursday and Saturday, going 4-for-7 with two doubles and one run while Pages caught the series finale on Sunday, going 3-for-4 and belting a three-run bomb to extend the St. Louis lead to 8-1 in the bottom of the third.
Center fielder Victor Scott II and second baseman Nolan Gorman each got in on the home run fun on Sunday with Scott crushing a three-run shot into the Cardinals’ bullpen and Gorman sending a solo shot 400 feet into the second row of the right field bleachers.
Along with the successes of the team’s three game sweep came the struggles. And luckily this did not include any mishaps from the starting rotation or bullpen.
Sonny Gray, Erick Fedde and Andre Pallante all recorded wins in their first starts of the season, and the St. Louis bullpen was practically lights out, allowing just one earned run over 11 innings of work.
The shortcomings instead came at the hands of newly minted first baseman Willson Contreras and shortstop Masyn Winn.
Each player failed to record their first hit of the season as Contreras posted a 0-14 mark with five strikeouts and Winn an 0-9, also with five K’s but two walks.
Taking the good with the bad is a timeless trait of any baseball fan during the lengthy regular season schedule. And with the work ethic of guys like Contreras and Winn, you have to expect better results in the immediate future, even as early as Monday night with the Angels in town.
So that’s where we sit as of today, Monday, March 31 at 3:09 PM.
The Cardinals are 3-0. They are in first place. And they are hitting the ball situationally, and with purpose. There’s not much more I can ask for.
Here’s to a long, hot and hopefully enjoyable 2025 season.
Thanks for reading.
Go Birds.
