Game day preview 3/29/25: Cardinals vs. Twins

The Cardinals won on Opening Day, but can they win the first series of the season?

The 2025 St. Louis Cardinals season started with a bang! The offense managed 8 hits against All-Star starter Pablo Lopez. We saw a snapshot of what the new look crew with the bat can do. Aggressiveness on the basepaths and timely hitting were supported by 2 big swings from Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Arenado. Sonny Gray still lacked his normal velo but as Cardinals fans we are familiar with what a veteran righty with diminished velo can do. Chris Roycroft and Phil Maton had strong starts to the season out of the pen and gave way to Ryan Helsley who looked like his usual dominant self. Lets take a look at how they try to follow up a 5-3 Opening Day win.

Todays Matchup: first pitch at 1:15 PM

STL- Erick Fedde (2024: 3.30 ERA 3.91 xERA 3.86 FIP 4.12 xFIP)

VS

MIN – Joe Ryan (2024: 3.60 ERA 2.87 xERA 3.44 FIP 3.44 xFIP)

How to watch:

Watch on: FanDuel Sports Midwest, FS1

Listen on: KMOX 1120 AM/104.1 FM, WIJR AM 880 (En Espanol)

Players to watch:

STL – Lars Nootbaar: Coming off a strong opening day performance Lars is 2-3 in his career against Ryan with a HR. I’d look for Nootbaar to build on Thursdays output as the offense’s catalyst and tone setter.

MIN – Carlos Correa: Correa, was 0-4 on Opening Day but is 3-3 against Starter Erick Fedde in his career. You can never keep high end hitters down forever so look for Correa to try to step up and get the team moving in the right direction in 2025.