I apologize in advance for being so positive, because as we all know, because “X” tells us so, everything sucks, and the Cardinals are a disgrace and … whatever. As the British might say, I’m being a bit of a wally here.
My intentionally lazy and predictable kidding aside, here’s what I think: what’s left of the storied BFIB cult actually enjoyed watching the Rebuildin’ Redbirds open the new season by winning two consecutive home series for the first time since 2008.
And it was only the second time since 2000 that we watched the Cardinals flap into a brand new season – in their home – by pecking away at the competition for two series triumphs.
The fellers were in fine feather. They took on a low-payroll team (Rays) and won a high-scoring series. They took on a high-payroll team (Mets) and won a low-scoring series. And here’s the thing about their first-week 4-2 record: the Cardinals could have lost four games, or five games, or all six games. None of these early contests were stress-free romps that had the other side using a position player to pitch in the final couple of innings with the team down by 11 runs.
The Cardinals had to dig in and earn their first four wins of the new baseball year. The average margin of victory was 1.7 runs. Two were snatched by one run. Three of the four happy endings were the result of comebacks.
In the first three-game series, the Cardinals and Rays brought out the lumber and smashed their way to a combined average of 15 runs per game. In the second three-game series, the Cardinals and Mets scrounged for offense and combined for an average of four runs per game.
Big difference, right there. But that’s the point. And the highlight. These Cardinals can fly high, or they can go low and skim their way to a win.
They sure had a lot of energy, a lot of nerve, a lot of attitude. Weren’t y’all supposed to lose 100 games this season? What the heck was this? One week, two series conquests, and a .667 winning percentage.
Hell, we know it’s early in the season. But what’s wrong with being an early bird? What’s wrong with flashing some colorful plumage to annoy the Rays and (especially) the Mets?
“We've got a lot of young energy in here, everybody knows it,” shortstop Masyn Winn said after defeating the Mets 2-1 in 11 innings by a margin of a few blades of shallow outfield grass. “I think that's just kind of a great representation of how we're going to probably win a lot of ballgames, probably going to be a lot of close games.”
Winn continued, and I do believe he let us know that manager Oli Marmol had something to say before the game. Something that you might expect from a neck-vein popping NFL or NHL coach.
“I think Ollie said it this morning,” Winn says. “He said ‘whoever wants it more today is going to win it,’ and I think that's exactly what it was. That was a battle all the way through and we finally pulled through at the end.”
Oli Marmol said this? Whoever wants it more today is going to win it? He was right. He’s Dick Vermeil now. Love it. (Again, I’m sorry for being so happy and positive. I’ll snap out of it.)
For now, I’m going to repeat my mantra for the Cardinals’ 2026 season: these birds not meant to fly alone. (Thank you, Turnstile.)
These boys love playing ball. These birds fly together. You can call it a formation, or a murmuration. But they’re in sync. They believe they will win.
“I think people were writing us off before the season even started,” the reliever Gordon Graceffo said after rescuing the Cards in the top of the 11th. “I think they're kind of seeing what we're able to do. We just grind out ballgames. We're a tough out and we're a way better team than people give us credit for.”
I got an email from an acquaintance – hi! – who had a question about Winn batting cleanup. Is Marmol afraid to hurt Winn’s feelings by removing him from the cleanup spot? Is this about Winn’s ego?
Winn: “You know, I don't care where I hit, 1 through 9. I'm just excited that I'm in the lineup.”
Winn is batting .160 with a .462 OPS as the team’s No. 4 hitter. This has not gone over well with Joe Public, Joe Podcast, Joe YouTuber, the obsessed Oli Haters, or the bros fans who watch every STL game while cosplaying Tony La Russa.
Inside the clubhouse?
“We're working on some things in the cages,” Winn said. “I feel I'm seeing the ball decent. You know what I mean? I'm not putting the best swing on it right now. But that's something we're working on. And, you know, I just appreciate these guys having confidence in me, putting me in there every single day.”
These birds?
Not meant to fly alone.
TAKEAWAYS FROM THE FIRST 6
1. The St. Louis bullpen, a tale of two series: 13 innings, 15 runs allowed against the Rays. Then 13 innings and no runs yielded to the Mets. Gonna be a crazy season.
2. The Mets went 1 for 29 against the Cardinals with runners in scoring position – which includes 0 for 17 against the STL pen with RISP.
3. The rotation watch: six games into the campaign, the St. Louis rotation ERA of 3.48 ranks 12th in the overall 30-team MLB show, and 6th among the 15 National League entries.
4. We can break it down rather easily: Matthew Liberatore, Michael McGreevy and Andre Pallante have collectively pitched to an 0.81 ERA in 22 innings. Libby has allowed one biscuit to cross the plate in each of his first two starts. Dustin May and Kyle Leahy were besieged for 10 earned runs and 18 hits in their nine combined innings.
5. I don’t mean to be a nag, but St. Louis starting pitchers rank last (30th) with an 11.9 percent strikeout rate. The Redbird relievers rank 29th with a 14.9% strikeout rate.
6. The last time the Cardinals had a rotation strikeout rate this low occurred in 1993 (11.5%). That rotation was stocked with some really fine fellows: Donovan Osborne, Allen Watson, Rene Arocha, Frenchy Cormier, Joe Magrane, Allen Watson, Omar Olivares and Tom Urbani.
7. Fun with numbers: the Cardinals scored eight runs in one inning (the 6th) in the first game against Tampa Bay. The Redbirds scored seven runs, total, in three games (and 29 innings) against the NYM arms.
8. The Cardinals have scored more than one run in an inning seven times this season, but six came against Tampa Bay. The Mets pitchers were stingy.
9. The Cardinals averaged 7.3 runs, batted .292, had 31 total hits, 11 extra-base hits and slugged .491 against the Rays. Strikeout rate, just 13.7%. Homers + doubles: 11.
10. The Cards followed that up by averaging 2.3 runs, batting .165, stroking 16 hits, and slugging .258 vs. the Mets. Strikeout rate: 30.8%. Homers + doubles, five.
11. The Cardinals are 2-0 in one-run outcomes so far. Just put that onto Oli Marmol’s record. The Cardinals are 100-68 in one-run decisions with Marmol as their manager, and that includes the one horrendous season (2023) when they were 17-26 in games settled by a run. His overall .538 winning percentage in one run-games as STL manager is .538, and that ranks 5th best in the majors over that time. If we issue a mulligan for 2023, Marmol’s winning percentage in one-run results is .580.
12. Nolan Gorman had a huge RBI single Wednesday to tie the game 1-1 and keep the Cards alive until they could subdue the Mets in extras. Gorman now leads the Cards in homers (two), RBIs (6) and is second with a .524 slugging percentage. Overall he’s performed 29 percent above league average offensively per OPS+. His strikeout rate is 22.7% which is fine with the return rate on offense. Gorman’s contact rate on strikes (88%) is 12 percent higher than his rate from 2022 through 2025.
13. Jordan Walker lost some momentum during the Mets series, going 1 for 9 with a walk and four strikeouts. It’s not a big deal, but all eyes are on Walker, and panic exists with every swing and miss. So that goes away if he has a good weekend series at Detroit. Even with the brief downturn, Walker has a .364 OBP, .526 slug and an OPS+ that makes him 59 percent above league average offensively.
14. And Walker was hardly alone in his difficulties against NYM pitchers. Alec Burleson, Nathan Church, Victor Scott, Pedro Pages and Thomas Saggese combined for only 5 hits in 43 at-bats and struck out 16 times.
15. Speaking of Pages, how about catcher Jimmy Crooks down at Triple A Memphis? Through Wednesday night Crooks had gone 8 for 15 this season (.533) with three homers and six RBIs. His left-handed swing is dangerous. He’s one of the highest-rated Cards prospects. He’s on the national Top 100 MLB prospects lists. And at 24, Crooks is three years younger than Pages. Wasn’t 2026 supposed to be about giving younger hitters an opportunity? Heck, the other young and highly-regarded catching prospect housed at Memphis (Leonardo Bernal) is hitting .313 early on.
16. Oh, sorry. That’s right. (Incoming sarcasm warning). If we listen to Oli Marmol and Cardinals pitchers talk, you’d think that Pages is a combination of Yadier Molina, Tom Pagnozzi, Mike Matheny, Walker Cooper, Del Rice, Tony Pena, Tim McCarver and other great defensive catchers in franchise history. It’s absolutely bizarre. And offensively Pages ain’t exactly Ted Simmons. Chaim Bloom, Hello?
17. The Cardinals “active cash” 26-man payroll at the start of the season was $48 million. The total represents the real-time cash being paid, in salaries, to the 26 members on the big-league roster. It does not include the payoffs the Cardinals sent to Boston and Arizona to close trades for Willson Contreras, Sonny Gray, and Nolan Arenado. It does not include deferred payments that are still on the books. The Cardinals have funded their 26-man roster at a cost of $48 million, and this is the most accurate assessment of true payroll we can make.
18. Only the Nationals have a lower active-cash payroll, and it’s by a slim margin. (Less than $2 million.) So that means the Cardinals rank 29th in active-cash real-time payroll. And they just won two of three from the Mets, who have the highest, active-cash payroll ($291 million) in the majors.
19. I like Thomas Saggese, I really do. But will someone at the ballpark explain something to him, please? When your team is tied in the ninth or in extra innings and has a runner on third base, or second base, or both … Well, you don’t have to swing from the heels, trying to launch some 500-foot walk-off homer. OK? This ain’t a home-run hitting contest. Just get the runner in for the win – and do it with a nice and easy swing that produces a smooth, opposite field, RBI single. Here’s the deal: Saggese doesn’t chase many pitches out of the zone. And he’s an effective, opposite-field hitter. He’ll figure it out.
20. Six games into the season, Jose Fermin and Yohel Pozo have something in common: no plate appearances. As a team the Cards have taken 225 plate appearances, but Pozo and Fermin have none of ‘em. If you ask me it’s pretty cool knowing the Cardinals are 4-2 even though they have voluntarily chosen to play short-handed against their opponents. When you can win 4 of 6 when playing with a 24-man roster when the other side has 26 players … good job!
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.