but it is not the end of the world.
There is a specific type of melancholy to ‘The Hollow Men’ by T.S. Eliot. It is hard not be with lines like “more distant and more solemn Than a fading star”. It is a poem about the end of the world, written at a time where the world was in great turmoil and all was bleak. It is about fading away quietly versus going out in a dramatic blaze.
It is a dramatic choice for a comparison for the first loss of the season for the St. Louis Cardinals, that is for sure, but I have to add some flair to an otherwise bland game, right?
And it was a bit of a dreary start to the season for the Cards with them dropping the opening game to the Los Angeles Dodgers 7 to 1. Miles Mikolas made the start for the Cardinals, going just over 4 innings giving up 5 runs on 2 walks and 7 hits with 5 strikeouts. The home run was an issue for him in 2023 and it was an issue for him this game. The Dodgers potent offense hit two out of the park against him along with two doubles.
The offense didn’t fair much better. 8 of the Cardinals starting 9 hitters went hitless on the day and the Cardinals amassed just 3 hits and 1 walk. The team did only strike out once, though and had a few line drives go for outs. Victor Scott reached base on a throwing error and stole second base for the first time in his young career.
Let’s focus on more positives from this game. While the Cardinals only had three hits as a team on the day, all of them were off the bat of Paul Goldschmidt. While that isn’t great news to hear about the rest of the team, it does seem to say something about good about Goldy, who went 3-4 with a homerun off Tyler Glasnow in the top of the fourth inning.
It was also a positive outing for the Matthew Liberatore. He entered the game in the eighth inning and kept the Dodgers off the board with no hits and one strikeout. His fastball topped out at 97 miles per hour and placed around the outer half of the zone and he induced a swinging strike with his slider.
Before we recorded the podcast tonight (stay tuned for that on Friday morning), the lovely J.P. Hill said something like “The good news is, baseball was played.” The outcome wasn’t much to write home about — this extremely short recap has taken me a long time to write, mostly because I struggled to find the best words to describe what was really a rather uneventful game for our favorite baseball team — but baseball is back. There is slight warmth in the air. The birds are chirping. Flowers are starting to bloom. There are 161 games left. 161 more chances. What a feeling.
The Cardinals and Dodgers resume their series on Friday and 9:10 pm CST.