By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Louis Cardinals offense, led once again by Lars Nootbaar and Nolan Arenado, wore down the Minnesota Twins pitching staff with 10 hits, and Erik Fedde spun a gem, as the Redbirds remained undefeated to start the young season Saturday, winning 5-1.
After Nootbaar singled to open the bottom of the first inning, he was driven in two batters later by Arenado for the early 1-0 lead for St. Louis. Minnesota tied up the game in the top of the second on an RBI double by Willi Castro that drove in Trevor Larnach who singled to open the inning.
From there though, Fedde and the rest of the Cardinals pitching staff shut down the Twins bats, with Minnesota managing just one more hit through the remainder of the game. Fedde, who earned the win, pitched six innings and struck out two, giving up just the two hits in the second inning. Reliever Jo Jo Romero surrendered the final hit in the eighth inning.
St. Louis put together a three run inning in the sixth. Arenado doubled to open the frame, Alec Burleson walked, and an Ivan Herrera single finally brought Arenado around to score and chased Jorge Alcala, who had replaced Minnesota starter Joe Ryan to begin the inning, from the game before he could even record an out.
Twins reliever Louis Varland walked Jordan Walker to start, loading the bases, but got back to back strike outs on Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn, nearly escaping the inning before Nootbaar singled to score Burleson and Herrera to push the lead to 4-1. The Cardinals final run came in the eighth inning, a sacrifice fly by Brendan Donovan that scored Scott II.
Nootbaar (2-3, 2 RBI's), Arenado (2-4, 1 RBI), Herrera (2-4, 1 RBI), and Scott II (2-4) led the way hitting for the Cardinals in the win.
Up next for St. Louis and Minnesota is the series finale on Sunday at Busch Stadium. Andre Pallante is set to start for the Cardinals against Bailey Ober for Minnesota. First pitch is at 1:15pm, pregame coverage begins at 12:20 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.