Bernie’s Redbird Review: Energized By History, A Ballpark Comes Alive On A Unique And Memorable Day At Busch Stadium.

Welcome to The Redbird Review.

The thing I will remember most about Opening Day was the vibrancy. The all-around vibrancy. Colors and crowds and sounds. A ballpark that was filled to capacity, and fully energized. The festival in the streets around the stadium had that holiday spirit again. After the pandemic season of 2020, and the limited-capacity season of 2021, Cardinals fans were ready to celebrate their team and baseball and the chance to feel alive. There were no restrictions or limitations. Just fresh air and baseball and freedom. The humanity flowed. This day at the park was perfect, and timely, and good for the soul.

The Clydesdales were in glorious form. The red-jacket motorcade delivered 16 baseball heroes to home plate, with Cardinal Hall of Famers in their red coats, taking us back to the happy days while giving us another happy day. Whitey, Willie, Ozzie, Simba, Big Mac, Jimmy Ballgame, Izzy. Rolen, Sutter, Shannon, Torre, McCarver, Lankford, Tudor, Coleman, Herr. Some were old, and some struggled physically, but their smiles were instant pain relievers. How great is this franchise? How rich is this history? How special are the men who made it something bigger than a game?

In the anticipated ceremony that did not let us down, we had the chance to greet the second-best starting pitcher in franchise history, Adam Wainwright. And the greatest catcher in Cardinal history, Yadier Molina. And the second most prolific hitter in team history, Albert Pujols. Still competing. Still important. Still winning. Still capable of making an entire ballpark stand and applaud and dab the tears dry. Three lions in the spring, all together again, ready to do it all over again. And as Waino, Yadi and Pujols walked along the line of the red jackets by home plate – the generations meeting and hugging in full clinch – the scene overwhelmed any effort to control emotion. I cracked when watching it live, and dropped another 96 tears when playing it a second time, later in the day. My wife asked me to pause the replay, so she could call to the bullpen for the tissue box. “I don’t normally act like this,” she said. “But this is really getting to me.”

The circle was completed by the 2022 Cardinals riding in cars, arriving on time, just before it was time to play ball and carry the generational torch into 2022. It was good to see them all, for they are the caretakers of hopes and dreams. And they pounced on the first opportunity to get 2022 off to a fantastic start.

The vibrancy continued with a season-opening 9-0 victory over the poor Pittsburgh Pirates. The visitors never had a chance. Not in this setting. They were overtaken by history, and quieted by a stadium that hadn’t rocked like this since 2019. It didn’t matter that Pujols and Molina went a combined 0 for 9. Their little brothers – their teammates – had their backs. And Wainwright, the legend on the mound, did what legends do.

Let’s talk some baseball in our first Redbird Review of the season …

The House of Wainwright: Six shutout innings, five hits, no walks, six strikeouts. But of course. Was anyone surprised by this? With the win Wainwright is now 109-59 with a 2.81 ERA in 1,409 innings of pitching inside the current Busch Stadium. He’ll be 41 in a few months and has no plans to put a halt to his defiance of age. Since June 1 of last season, Wainwright has a 15-3 individual record with a 2.47 ERA, and the Cardinals have a 19-4 record in his starts. That’s an .826 winning percentage. Wainwright needs 15 wins to reach 200 for his career.

Tyler O’Neill, Star of the Game: Two hits and a walk. A three-run homer. An RBI single. Plated another run with a sac fly. That’s five RBIs in the first three hours of the season. Bro has Scott Boras as his new agent, is collecting Gold Gloves, and launching home runs that damage stadiums. At age 26, O’Neill seemingly has come through the difficulties to emerge as one of the best all-around players in the majors. Life be good.

Since shaking off the injuries early last season, this is what O’Neill has done since Aug. 1 of last season – and Thursday’s opening-day stats are included: 201 at-bats, 18 homers, .323 average, .396 OBP, .657 slug, and a 1.052 OPS. That’s a homer every 11 at-bats.

– Since the start of the 2021 season O’Neill has 35 homers in 485 at-bats with a .567 slugging percentage and a 152 OPS+ that puts him 52 percent above league average offensively. He’s homered every 13.8 at bats over that time.

– Since the start of last season O’Neill has 6.3 WAR, which ranks 8th in MLB among players that have at least 500 plate appearances since the start of last season. The only dudes ahead of him are Marcus Semien, Carlos Correa, Juan Soto, Vlad Guerrero Jr., Jose Ramirez and Trea Turner. (I used the Baseball Reference version of WAR.)

Smart Lineup Construction: It’s one game and all of that. And yes, their opponent in the opener lost 101 games last season. But as I wrote a couple of weeks ago, I was hoping for a new look to the lineup – and was confident in Oli Marmol to put it together. Specifically, I was in favor of Dylan Carlson batting leadoff … but that was just a part of the arrangement. With no pitchers batting, Marmol had the opportunity to place two leadoff-type bats in the No. 8 and the No. 9 spots this season. Harrison Bader and Tommy Edman aren’t the highest onbase percentage guys, but they can run and there’s enough to make this work. And with Paul Goldschmidt placed after Carlson at No. 2 in the lineup, the Cardinals have the exciting potential to create stress and problems by populating the bases for No. 3 hitter O’Neill, and No. 4 hitter Nolan Arenado.

In Thursday’s win the No. 8-9-1-2 lineup spots combined to reach base 10 times in 18 plate appearances. There were five hits, four walks, and a hit by pitch. Edman homered. Bader and Carlson each had a double. Goldschmidt had four walks and a single.

The 8-9-1-2 hitters scored SEVEN runs.

And seven RBIs from the No. 3-4 hitters, O’Neill and Arenado.

In addition to driving in himself on the homer, O’Neill scored Carlson (twice), Bader and Goldschmidt. Arenado drove in Goldschmidt and himself on his late two-run homer.

One game. Inferior opponent. But still a lot of fun to watch and get an idea of how this could work. Marmol won’t be using the same alignment for every game; the pieces may be shuffled depending on the opponent’s choice of a starting pitcher – lefty or righty. But we should expect Marmol to use the leadoff-speed-OBP element at the bottom of the lineup to create more opportunities for the guys hitting 2-3-4. We’re going to like this manager.

The Outfield Rides Again: O’Neill, Bader and Carlson keyed the offensive turnaround last season as soon as O’Neill and Bader got through a frustrating sequence of injuries. From July 1 through the end of the 2021 regular season the STL outfield ranked second in the majors in batting average (.283), third in slugging (.502), fifth in obase percentage (.347) and fifth in OPS (.849). And based on adjusted runs created – taking ballpark and league effects into account – the Cardinals had the third-best outfield in the majors offensively over their final 81 games.

In Thursday’s game O’Neill-Bader–Carlson combined for five hits (three for extra bases), a walk, a hit by pitch, two sac flies, five runs and and six RBI.

Praise For John Mozeliak: The team’s president of baseball operations was absolutely, positively and 100 percent correct on his controversial decision to commit to O’Neill, Bader and Carlson going into 2021. He doesn’t get enough credit for that.

The Cards Already Had A Good Offense. No One Should Be Surprised: Before Thursday’s game Marmol said his team’s offense would surprise people in 2022. “I don’t think the offense is at the forefront of people’s thoughts, as far as what they’re capable of doing,” he said. “I think we’re going to have a very powerful offense.”

I politely disagree with Marmol. Oh, I agree with his optimism, but not with how he framed this. People who actually bothered to pay attention last season already knew that the St. Louis offense was really strong over the final three months of the 2021 season – and had a good chance to be even stronger in 2022. Last season’s upturn wasn’t a fluke; it was a  matter of getting the preferred players on the field once their injury issues cleared up. Over the final 81 regular-season games last season the Cards ranked among the MLB top five in average, slugging and OPS. And was third in MLB in park-and-league adjusted runs created. And the cast for 2022 is largely the same – with Pujols and Corey Dickerson added to the mix.

The Little Things: The Cardinals had five productive outs in Thursday’s victory.

Busch Bash: Thursday’s nine-run outburst is notable for this reason: the 2021 Cardinals scored nine or more runs at home only twice all season. And the Redbirds failed to score nine runs in a home game after putting nine on Colorado on May 8. The Cards scored 14 against Washington at Busch early in the season (April 13.)

The Pirates Sincerely Appreciate Cardinals History: Before the opening game, Pirates pitcher Zach Thompson expressed excitement over the possibility of meeting Pujols. “He’s someone I definitely want to get an autograph from and take a picture with,” Thompson told the media that cover Pittsburgh. “I imitated his swing growing up,” Thompson said. “When you see him up there, you sort of have to take a step back a little bit, like, ‘This is Albert Pujols in the box.’ It’s really cool.”

Pirates outfielder Cole Tucker knows it’s special for the Cardinals to have a reunion season featuring Wainwright, Pujols and Molina. “We obviously want to beat them, but you have to acknowledge baseball history when it happens, and when it’s happening right in front of your eyes,” Tucker said. “The fact that those guys have the opportunity to go out together is really cool. In baseball and pro sports with free agency, you’re always like, ‘It would be so cool if this happened.’ Well, now it’s really happening. It’s good for the game.”

And then there’s Pirates catcher Roberto Perez. He has a strong bond with Molina because both hail from Puerto Rico. “I admire him,” Perez said of Molina before Thursday’s game. “He’s my favorite catcher, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m probably going to feel like a little kid. Probably going to go out early and see the ceremony and enjoy opening day. I don’t take this for granted. I know what all of those guys have done in their careers. It’s something really cool to play against them, especially in their final year.”

Thanks for reading …

—Bernie

Bernie invites you to listen to his opinionated and analytical sports-talk show on 590-AM The Fan, KFNS. It airs Monday through Thursday from 3-6 p.m. and Friday from 4-6 p.m. You can listen by streaming online or by downloading the “Bernie Show” podcast at 590thefan.com — the 590 app works great and is available in your preferred app store.

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All stats used here are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Stathead, Bill James Online, Fielding Bible, Baseball Savant and Brooks Baseball Net unless otherwise noted.