St. Louis, Mo. (KFMO) – The St. Louis Cardinals began the season with series win taking two games against the Tampa Bay Rays at Busch Stadium.
Rookie JJ Wetherholt had a phenomenal debut weekend that included his first MLB hit, a home run in his second at-bat on Opening Day. Wetherholt batted in the bottom of the 10th with two on in the second game of the series and grounded the ball to right field capping off a comeback win with a walk-off hit. He batted .308 in the three game series with four RBI and a stolen base.
Alec Burleson led all Cardinal hitters in the series batting .364 with four RBI and a two-run homer on Opening Day putting an exclamation point on an 8-run sixth inning to erase a six run deficit.
Matthew Liberatore worked through five innings in his first Opening Day start allowing one run on seven hits in the no-decision. Michael McGreevy was near perfect in his Game 2 start. McGreevy pitched six no-hit innings striking out five and walking 2. Despite the success on the mound, Tampa Bay scored four in the top of the ninth, taking away a would-be win for McGreevy. Dustin May struggled in the series finale on Sunday. He allowed six runs on 10 hits over four innings getting the loss.
Game 1: St. Louis 9-7
Game 2: St. Louis 6-5 (10 inn.)
Game 3: Tampa Bay 11-7