ST. LOUIS -- After a rain delay of more than an hour and a half, both starter Pablo López and the Twins’ bats got off to somewhat shaky starts on Thursday. Both recovered, but it wasn’t enough to salvage an Opening Day win at Busch Stadium. The Twins fell to the Cardinals, 5-3, in front of a sellout crowd, for their first Opening Day loss since 2022.
Here are three takeaways from the game:
Bader is going to play
You could tell that just from looking at the lineup, never mind what he did in the game. Harrison Bader got the start in left field against a right-handed pitcher, with Trevor Larnach moving to designated hitter, and that’s a good indication of how the Twins might line up pretty frequently this year.
But on top of that, if Bader hits like this against righties, he’s going to play a lot. Bader homered off of Sonny Gray in the fifth, then doubled off of flame-throwing closer Ryan Helsley in the ninth. That all came on top of the extremely warm welcome that the St. Louis fans gave him, adding up to a fine individual night even if the team result was not what he wanted.
“It’s always about the bigger picture and the team, but you know, there are times -- very few, but there are times -- when I do kind of take it in for a second individually,” Bader said. “And there’s no doubt, returning here is very special for me.”
Bader will spell Byron Buxton on days when the Twins decide to give Buxton a day off or have him DH. Bader will get starts in the corners against tough lefties, when Larnach or Matt Wallner may sit. But also, there are going to be plenty of games like this, when Bader starts in a corner against a righty. He’s a part of the outfield rotation, and will only be more so if he can hit right-handers successfully.
López is not where he wants to be just yet
It was a mixed start for López, who certainly had some bad luck on batted balls, but also gave up a couple of screamers on changeups in the Cardinals’ two-run second inning. Jordan Walker hit a rocket of a single on a changeup low in the zone, then Lars Nootbaar hit a home run on a changeup that was actually beneath the zone. Neither was a bad pitch, but both were smoked. And both came on a 1-2 count.
“It’s one of my best pitches, especially to lefties,” López said. “You look at the at-bat, he swung through pretty much the same pitch two pitches before that. I tried to go back to it, and he made a really, really good adjustment.”
López was also charged with a balk on what would otherwise have been a caught stealing, and he committed a throwing error on another play when the Twins had a Cardinals runner caught. López found a groove over his final two innings, but the early 4-0 hole was too much to dig out of.
That comes off of a spring where he consistently indicated he was pleased with the progress he was making, but overall the results weren’t great (6.62 ERA in five starts). López certainly doesn’t look far off, but he also doesn’t seem to be fully locked in just yet.
They might have been right about France
Ty France had an outstanding spring at the plate (1.233 OPS in 17 games). And he continued his hot hitting on Thursday, with a single and two fly balls he crushed to the warning track that speedy center fielder Victor Scott II chased down. France explained during the spring that he was compromised for much of last year due to a lingering right foot injury, and it’s not unreasonable to think he could return to the offensive form from earlier in his career.
What may have stood out as much as his swings on Thursday, though, was his defense. France made a series of nice scoops, supporting the Twins’ contention that not only will he contribute with the bat, he’ll also be a quality defender.
“Those picks were really important,” said manager Rocco Baldelli. “It's something he brings to the table and he's good at it and we knew he's good at it. Jayce [Tingler, bench coach] said he's going to pick some balls out of the dirt pretty easily. He's good at it. … He's looked great all spring and that's nothing different than we've seen over the last six weeks from him.”