Cardinals Off To 'Relentless' Start To 2025 Following Impressive Opening Day Victory

St. Louis is in control of its destiny

Mar 27, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Lars Nootbaar (21) celebrates with right fielder Jordan Walker (18) and first baseman Willson Contreras (40) after hitting a two run home run against the Minnesota Twins during the second inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals silenced doubters and critics Thursday after defeating the American League Central-rival Minnesota Twins in a dominant 5-3 victory at Busch Stadium.

For the last two seasons, the Cardinals have been mediocre at best. They have encouraged the best baseball fans to stop attending home games while St. Louis' front office continuously disappoints.

However, Thursday's encouraging win should hopefully be a snippet of what's to come from this year's youth-laden Cardinals roster. The odds are stacked against St. Louis' success this season but manager Oli Marmol sounds confident that 2025 will be very different.

"'I think that tone was set months ago, and we’re now going to be able to put it into action,' manager Oliver Marmol said," as transcribed by St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Derrick Goold on Friday. “'You can talk about all of these different words of being electric and bringing energy and relentless and then actually doing it? And they did exactly that. Running all over the field. Making plays. Stealing bases. Our at-bats like that is what a relentless at-bat looks like, one through nine.'"

The Cardinals offense, which was the team's Achille's Heel last season, logged 10 hits with only five strikeouts including two home runs -- one from Lars Nootbaar and the other Nolan Arenado -- during Thursday's victory over Minnesota.

"'When you have that mentality, one through nine, that’s putting the words into action,' the manager continued," Goold continued transcribing. “'I felt like our at-bats and our style of play was exactly that.'”

Considering that this year's Cardinals lineup isn't much different from last season's, expectations for St. Louis to succeed in 2025 are low. Several former top prospects and floundering veterans must step up if the 11-time World Series champions hope to return to the playoffs this October.

Fortunately, it sounds as if the Cardinals' roster has many players with significant chips on their shoulders, which could be a recipe for unexpected dominance. Thursday's triumphant win proved that St. Louis can't be counted out yet. The once well-respected franchise appears to be on a mission to prove itself and return to being the perennial contender it's known to be.

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