Cards Beat Twins 5-3 on Opening Day

The Cardinals lead wire-to-wire and open 2025 1-0

Folks I’ve seen enough: the Cards are gonna win it all this year.

Despite the rain delay killing maybe just a hint of the buzz surrounding Opening Day, the Cardinals got 2025 off on the right foot, beating Minnesota 5-3 Thursday evening in Busch Stadium. Sonny Gray earned the win, while Ryan Helsley picked up where he left off last season and recorded his first save of the season.

The first inning of 2025 couldn’t have gone better for Gray, needing just six pitches to go 1-2-3. Gray induced a pair of first pitch outs, the former being a fly out to Jordan Walker, and the latter being a weak pop out to Nolan Arenado. Sandwiched in between those two fly outs was Gray’s first strikeout of 2025.

While Gray cruised through the top first, Pablo Lopez labored in the home half of the inning. Lopez gave up a leadoff single to Lars Nootbaar. Noot was awarded second base off a Lopez balk and then scored the Cards’ first run of 2025 by way of an RBI single by Brendan Donovan. Twenty-six pitches later, Lopez finally got out of the first inning, but not before handing St. Louis a lead that they would not relinquish.

Gray made things interesting for himself in the second inning but was able to work out of a bases loaded jam, thanks in large part to Wilson Contreras turning back the clock, channeling his old catcher days—complete with throwing off his hat!—and catching the third out on a weak pop fly in foul territory.

St. Louis bolstered its lead in the second inning, with a two-run home run by Noot. It extends the franchise’s streak to nine consecutive years with an Opening Day home run.

The Cards’ bats would strike once again in the third inning. Brendan Donovan and Nolan Arenado hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second, but the threat was, for a moment at least, quelled when Alec Burleson hit into a 6-3 double play. The play, however, did at least manage to move Donovan to third base, and Donny came home thanks to an RBI single by Iván Herrera, extending St. Louis’ lead to 4-0.

After flirting with disaster in the second inning, Gray locked in and retired seven consecutive batters. He struck out four straight between the fourth and fifth innings, highlighted by striking out the side in the fourth.

The thing about working with a 4-0 run lead, however, is you’re willing to maybe make a mistake or two and Gray made some in the fifth inning. Gray gave up a first-pitch single to Jose Miranda and then on a 2-2 count, Harrison Bader took Gray deep to cut that four-run lead in half. Gray would then issue a walk, but redeemed himself by getting Carlos Correa to hit into an inning-ending double play.

Gray’s day was done after throwing five innings in which he only allowed four hits, two earned runs, struck out six and issued a pair of walks.

While Minnesota tried to even the score in the sixth, an incredible catch by Victor Scott kept that from happening. The Twins had runners on first and second with just one out, and Ty France sent Kyle Leahy’s offering deep to right centerfield, but luckily Scott was able to chase it down and make the catch.

If that ball drops it’s at least a 4-3 game, but more likely than not a tie game, with France standing at second. Thankfully Scott decided to start crafting his Gold Glove resumé on day one of the season and limited the damage.

Minnesota would, however, get a run across in the sixth when Willi Castro hit an RBI double off of John King to cut St. Louis’s lead down to 4-3.

Plenty of ink has been spilled on this fine site about the future of Nolan Arenado, but tonight he got to be a hero and deliver St. Louis a much-needed insurance run in the eighth inning. Arenado launched his first home run of 2025 to left field and got a well-earned curtain call from the Cardinal faithful.

With a 5-3 lead in hand, Oli turned to his hammer and brought in Helsley. He did put the tying run with a double to left field, but otherwise the outing was perfect: four batters faced, three Ks, game over.

Noot, Donovan, Arenado, and Herrera all had a pair of hits, while Walker smoked a single that was Statcasted at 116.5 MPH off the bat in the second inning, which is officially the hardest-hit ball of his young career.

The Cards and Twins will have Friday off—maybe they can get all get together and watch some March Madness?—before picking back up on Saturday at 1:15. Erick Fedde makes his first start of 2025 and he’ll go up against Minnesota righty Joe Ryan.