After their first series of the season, the Cardinals easily could be 0-3. They easily could be 3-0. The same applies to the Tampa Bay Rays. The competition was disorderly. It was a melee. It was a grind-out.
Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting as the Rays and Cardinals slugged it out over 28 innings for a combined 45 runs, 72 hits, 19 walks, 17 extra-base hits, a .317 batting average and a rate of 15 runs scored per game.
It was a donnybrook. A free-for-all. And no I’m not talking about the new $29 all you can eat seats at Busch Stadium. Disclaimer, issued because of my poor writing: you eat ballpark food. You cannot eat the seats.
Down in Jungleland (Springsteen, 1975) the Cardinals took two of three rounds, and clinched a series win. The weather was pleasant, the baseball was action-packed and fans had a swell time at Busch Stadium … well, except for the public-health safety risk of smoke inhalation caused by Cardinals relievers.
Given that the national ball watchers – the sages in the baseball pressbox – are predicting 90+ defeats for our hometown lads in 2026, I’d say a series win was an acceptable start to a DOA campaign.
Last week Cardinals shortstop Masyn Winn announced the team’s approach, the guiding philosophy, for the season.
"We're going to go out there and just play with our hair on fire and have a good time,” he said. "As far as the ups and downs, I'm interested to see. A lot of times whenever something's going bad, the veteran steps in and gets on everybody's butt. But I think this year might actually be better because we're all so young and we're all going to struggle. We're all going to go through slumps. Having guys who are younger and really like-minded is going to be good for us.”
It’s a story that no one seems to want to talk about: these fledgling birds don’t need any cranky, pedantic, veteran types in the clubhouse to kill the vibe, kill the buzz.
Based on research by Baseball America, the Cardinals had the youngest roster in the majors at the start of the 2026 season. The way the “kids” look at it, there’s no need for old-grownup supervision.
I’m on their side. I prefer it this way. As we saw in the first series of the season, the Cardinals – as the old-timey sportswriters might say – “are a team of seven-mule persistence.”
The old-timey sportswriters – and oh, how I still love them so, and I’m not being sarcastic – would be sizing up this young Cardinal squad and thwacking the typewriter keys on the Underwood or Smith-Corona.
They might even bring back some sentimental favorites from the “Gashouse Gang” Era.
“A collection of hard-bitten rustabouts.”
“A plucky bunch.”
“Full of ginger.”
“A motley crew of uncouth bumpkins.”
“Rowdy-Dowdy Redbirds.”
“A tribe of sun-baked, dust-covered gladiators.”
“Green as grass.”
“Youthful cohorts.”
“Wet behind the ears.”
“Full of vim and vigor.”
“A rambunctious squad of shavetails.”
Wait.
What the hell is a shavetail?
A raw, inexperienced newcomer is one definition. I got some AI help on this, and the term originated in the U.S. Army during the 19th century. When the Army purchased a new, unbroken mule, they would shave its tail to distinguish it from the coached-up trained animals in the pack train. The "shavetail" mule was a dangerous animal to stand behind. It wasn’t trained and prone to kicking or bolting during a scrum.
Well, it seems to me, observing the scene in 2026, these Cardinals have some brashness in their genetic makeup. The rowdy-dowdy Redbirds enjoy getting their uniforms dirty. They got filthy. And that makes for an entertaining ballcub.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE OPENING SERIES
1. JJ Wetherholt. I don’t know the complete meaning of the so-called “it factor” … but JJ has the “it” factor. The first-game (ever) home run. The second-game (ever) walkoff-winning hit. No rookie, making his MLB debut, had ever done that before. Never. He’s so confident at the plate that it gives me confidence to watch him.
2. This is also JJ Wetherholt, who bats from the left side, in the opening series: 6.7% walk rate, 6.7% strikeout rate. A .333 average vs. lefty pitchers, a .300 average vs. righties. He’s known for controlling the strike zone, but in the first series he went 2 for 10 when connecting with strikes – and was 2 for 3 with a homer on non-strikes. Ain’t it supposed to be the other way around? Don’t try to peg Wetherholt. Don’t typecast him. You can’t. Not when this dude can savage a pitch a half-foot out of the outside strike zone and drive in 425 feet for his first HR. But JJ knows how to do these things. He’ll keep the pitchers guessing. And they’ll guess wrong more than they’d like to. He had a 54 percent hard-hit rate in his first three games in the majors.
3. What about JJ’s early defense at second base? Well. Look at this. Statcast gave him a 100 range rating, a perfect score, and he’s already been credited with a Fielding Run Value of +1. But of course.
4. The Cardinals outfielders got rolling early. Against the Rays Jordan Walker, Victor Scott II, Nathan Church and Thomas Saggese collectively batted .387 with a .441 on-base percentage and .548 slug. Plus a home run, two doubles, three walks, five RBIs and 11 runs. The Cardinals had arguably the worst outfield (offensively) in the bigs last season – so this was a nice change.
By the way, I know it’s only three games.
Only three games.
Only three games.
Got it! Whew. I thought the season was over or something.
5. I’m not trying to underplay Jordan Walker’s excellent performance in the first series of the season. Still 23 years old, Walker has been thrown around and kicked down during the challenge of dealing with (a) major-league pitching, (b) curing his own flaws and (c) coping with an extreme loss of confidence. Believe me, I was thrilled to see Walker have this great start to the 2026 season – but this always feels kind of tenuous. There was, however, so much to like from what we witnessed . He was calm and composed and largely still in the batter’s box. Walker was a tower of confidence. Which means that something good was likely to come from his tower of power.
6. As Walker said after Sunday’s game: he just cleared his mind, and that’s what he plans to do from now on. It sounds like a smart approach because Walker looked like a different hitter. During the series, he faced 42 pitches and had only three swings and misses. He struck out just once in 12 plate appearances. He hit .400 with a preposterously high 89% hard-hit rate. He punished pitches in the strike zone with a 93 percent contact rate. And when connecting with a strike, Walker had two doubles, a homer and batted .471. He was on base so often, JW goes into Monday with an MLB-leading six runs scored.
7. Excerpt from Monday’s Bernie Show video: the Cardinals get high marks for their competitiveness in the Tampa Bay series. They weren’t going to back down, no matter how gloomy the situation appeared to be. They were going to engage the Rays in a battle. It was admirable. And fun to watch.
8. In the series the Rays had the lead 16 times at the end of an inning. The Cards led at the end of an inning only 7 times. The other five innings ended in a tie score. So despite being in the lead at the end of an inning only 25 percent of the time over three games, and despite having their own shaky bullpen blow up in all three contests, the Cardinals had the tenacity to persevere and overcome. Given the deficit positions they were in, the Cardinals beat the win-probability assessments by winning two of the three games.
9. Here’s a second and related stat: When the Cardinals trailed Tampa Bay on the scoreboard, they took 49 plate total appearances in those deficit situations. And here’s how they performed with the pressure on to get something done, take advantage of opportunities, and stage a comeback: .452 batting average, four doubles, three homers, 14 runs batted in and 15 runs scored. The boys would not go quietly. That’s how you launch a comeback.
10. The Cardinal hitters did a good job with the swing decisions against the Rays. Their 13.7 percent strikeout rate was the lowest by an MLB team during the first set of games. The Cards had the 10th-lowest chase rate on pitches out of the zone, and the third highest swing rate (69.5%) on strikes.
11. Strong, strong series from Victor Scott II. He led the STL offense in hits (5), stolen bases (2) and sacrifice bunts (2). There weren’t any sparks shooting off Scott’s bat, but there’s something lovely about a soft line-drive single. And Scott hit .500 over the three games.
12. The Rays’ hitters beat the mucus out of St. Louis relievers in the series. The damage: 13 innings, 15 earned runs, 10.38 ERA. The worst part of the performance? The pathetic bullpen strikeout rate (12.9%), high walk rate (11.4%) and a sad little swinging-strike rate of 8%. Several relievers had rotten batted ball luck; it’s fair to note it.
13. That said, when a pitcher doesn’t miss bats and his pitches are getting knocked and slapped and bounced into play, whaddya think is going to happen? That’s right; the pitcher becomes vulnerable. He is dependent on batted-ball luck. With the STL relievers, that’s pretty much what happened against Tampa.
14. Is the bullpen’s opening-series battering a reason for alarm? Well, yes – but only if the relievers don’t begin inducing a higher percentage of swings and misses and punchouts. I know Matt Svanson is probably better than his numbers show – but like most of these guys the swing-miss stuff isn’t there for him yet. The sinker isn’t coming in like a live alligator and snapping. But on Monday, I took a look at his overall Pitching+ rating, and the early-season returns show that his stuff was better than his Pitching+ metric in 2025. And his sinker vs. Tampa Bay was rated at a match with last year’s sinker.
15. Patience. Last season, during a 30-game stretch from March 31 through May 2, the St. Louis bullpen ranked 27th among the 30 teams in ERA (5.14), strikeout rate, and Win Probability Added. Oli Marmol and pitching coach Dusty Blake made some changes and reordered the bullpen during an off day. And from May 4 through the end of the regular season the Cards bullpen ranked 5th in the majors in ERA, 8th in saves, 8th in WPA, and 13th in strikeout rate. Patience.
16. With Alec Burleson showing the way, the Cardinals’ five-man delegation of left-handed hitters swung a heavy lath against Tampa Bay pitchers. Burleson, Nolan Gorman, JJ Wetherholt, Nathan Church and Victor Scott feasted on the offerings and smoked a .365 batting average .538 slug, three homers, 14 RBIs and a wRC+ that was 61 percent above league average offensively. Burly will have his best MLB season in 2026. In the three tilts with the Rays, he bruised pitches in the strike zone for four hits in nine at-bats, including his game-winning two-run homer in Game 1. And Burleson’s hard-hit rate on those strikes? Just 80 percent.
17. On Dustin May: howsabout we the media stop obsessing over his high-voltage velocity and focus on, well, you know … the actual pitching. My goodness, there was so much premature frothing over May’s velo, you’d think the dude was peak-form Nolan Ryan, or maybe the second coming of Bob Feller. I believe May will pitch well for the Cardinals. But I also believe I’d like to see him just make his scheduled start every sixth day, go about his bidness, and sharpen up.
18. May lasted only 22 batters in his Sunday start, his first as a Cardinal, getting popped for 10 hits, including five doubles. May was poled for six earned runs in four innings. The problem? May had the velo on his sinker (96 mph) but it was straight and flat, and the Rays crushed it. The slider was batting-practice quality. For some reason, the right-hander kept throwing these two pitches when his other stuff was much better. (Wait a second; I thought Pedro Pages was Yadier Molina?) He has a lot of work to do. And I’m not down on him. He’ll do better next time out. But May’s inability to locate caused too many pitches to drift into the slaughterhouse zone, and that was big trouble.
19. Matthew Liberatore and Michael McGreevy: they started the first two games of the season and combined for 11 innings and one run allowed (Libby). McGreevy didn’t allow a knock in six innings, and his sinker and changeup were outstanding. Looking forward to seeing Kyle Leahy work Monday night against the Mets.
20. The little stuff: The Cardinals had a firm grasp of the tiny things that can help a team score 22 runs in three games. (The five home runs were sort of a big deal, too!). Anyway the STL hitters had eight productive outs against the Rays, the most by an MLB team in the opening series. The Redbirds also advanced 11 extra bases on the dirt path, which also was the most in the majors. Their hitters also ranked first in percentage of swings that put the ball in play. Their extra-base hit percentage (9.4%) was best in the bigs. All of this explains why such an impressive amount of their baserunners (52%) came around to score; that was also No. 1 in the majors during the opening weekend.
21. Walker and Gorman: Yeah (all together now) it’s only three games but how many of y’all saw this coming in the first series? Walker and Gorman (combined) were 7 for 22 with two homers, seven RBIs, two doubles, eight runs scored, and a strikeout rate of 13.5%.
That’s it. Out of words.
Thanks for reading …
–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.