The Cardinals won on Opening Day, hooray!
Quite the showcase last night for the Marlins, the City of Miami, and your World Champion Cardinals, eh?
Some quick, stream-of-consciousness thoughts this morning:
- I’m happy for Mike Matheny, and clearly his players are too.
- Not that I was worried much about it personally, I think winning last night was subtly a huge weight off of the shoulders of the team and manager. If they had started 0-4 or something, the “Matheny still looking for first win” storyline would’ve been in play, not to mention talk about a departed first baseman.
- That park is huge. Massive. Swallowed two Giancarlo Stanton bombs whole and didn’t even say please or thank you.
- Can’t help but wonder if the manager had and inkling about the big yard when deciding to start Kyle Lohse. There was some – maybe not a lot, but some – consternation from Cardinal fans about Lohse starting instead of Garcia or even Wainwright. For Lohse, decidedly the Cards’ most flyball-heavy starting pitcher, the park was a perfect fit.
- Remember Kyle Lohse of 2008? And most of 2011? We saw more of that guy, the guy they gave the big extension to last night. He’s healthy and he was masterful. I know it’s just one game, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Lohse bandwagon may fill up quickly this season.
- I liked the strings Matheny pulled – runners in motion, getting Lohse out on a reasonable pitch count and before he could have a blowup inning.
- Just as spring stats are widely panned, let’s pump the brakes on “Furcal is back” after one three-hit game. He may well round back into form, but as exciting as Opening Day is, these players and pitchers aren’t exactly their sharpest yet either. Rafael Furcal may not hit .190, but he’s not going to hit .600 either.
- Ditto David Freese. I’m a bit more confident of Freese rebounding after a tough spring, but let’s give him a few weeks before building his statue at Westport. Stay healthy, stay healthy, stay healthy.
- I will eat a Reds hat if Tyler Greene plays more games at second base this year than Daniel Descalso.
- Finally, it was really strange the first time ESPN panned to their manager shot in the dugout and that handsome devil Matheny was standing there. I reckon I’ll get used to it pretty quickly, especially if more results than not are like last night.
Enjoy the off-day Cards fans. Back at it tomorrow!
{ 5 comments }
Did anyone else suffer from TLR withdrawal when Greene didn’t come in to run for Freese in the 8th?
I was certain that we were going to run the old “Greene pinch runs and plays 2nd while Dirty Dan shifts to 3rd” play.
Didn’t miss it. Bet David didn’t either…
Saw a tweet earlier that said the Cards used only their original eight non-position players last night. Only happened twice in 2011. Incredible.
Personally, I’m saving this post. And finding a Reds hat, just in case.
Tyler Greene fans coming out of the woodwork over here…..
No, more a fan of people eating hats. That’s high quality entertainment!
Comments on this entry are closed.