Inside The Cardinals

Cardinals Superstar Had Near-Perfect Opening Day

The Cardinals couldn't have asked for more on Thursday...
Patrick McAvoy|
Jul 12, 2020; St. Louis, Missouri, United States; A view of empty seats as the St. Louis Cardinals play a simulated game at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
Jul 12, 2020; St. Louis, Missouri, United States; A view of empty seats as the St. Louis Cardinals play a simulated game at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

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St. Louis Cardinals

After a long few months, the St. Louis Cardinals returned to the field on Thursday for a regular season baseball game.

Opening Day was on Thursday and the Cardinals started it off just as they likely hoped for with a big win over the Minnesota Twins. Sonny Gray got the win, Ryan Helsley got the save, and the Cardinals should be happy right now.

The guy who should be the happiest, though, is third baseman Nolan Arenado. This is a guy who has been in trade rumors on a consistent basis since the 2024 season came to an end. He was open to leaving, but for the right team. The Cardinals made it clear that they wanted to trade him.

The entire offseason and even Spring Training was full of speculation -- both positive and negative. Finally, real action returned and Arenado had a great day. He was 2-for-4 in the win over the Twins and launched his first home run of the season. Much has been made about Arenado's power numbers from last season, so it must've been nice to club one out of the ballpark on Opening Day.

To make matters better, he got a curtain call after the home run from the fans at Busch Stadium.

One thing that was nice to see about his home run as well was the fact that his bat speed was 75.5 miles per hour in comparison to an average of 70.7 miles per hour last year, as shared by MLB's David Adler. It's obviously a small sample size being one game, but it couldn't have been a better one for Arenado.

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Patrick McAvoy
PATRICK MCAVOY

Patrick McAvoy's experiences include local and national sports coverage at the New England Sports Network with a focus on baseball and basketball. Outside of journalism, Patrick also is pursuing an MBA at Brandeis University. After quickly rising as one of the most productive writers on the site, he expanded his reach to write for Baseball Essential, a national baseball site in Sports Illustrated Media Group. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding Inside The Cardinals, please reach out to Scott Neville: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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