Cardinals’ Most Overlooked Win From Opening Day

Liberatore went five innings against the Rays and allowed just one earned run. There was some traffic on the base paths behind him. Liberatore allowed seven base hits and walked two batters, but he limited the damage. Liberatore struck out two and the only run that he allowed came on a solo homer.

The expectations around the Cardinals aren't high for the 2026 season. But the club as a whole arguably has been underrated. If the Cardinals are going to outperform the expectations, it's going to be because of the pitching. If you look at this over the last three years, pitching has been a problem. This year, the rotation has the potential to be much better, even without Sonny Gray. It starts with Liberatore. He was the team's Opening Day starter for a reason. If he can deliver performances like this all throughout the season, that already helps. Last year he had a 4.21 ERA in 29 starts. If he can log an ERA below 4.00, that'd be massive.

Beyond Liberators, the Cardinals have Michael McGreevy, Dustin May, Kyle Leahy and Andre Pallante in the rotation right now. Think of last year. The Cardinals were fortunate to have Gray, but Miles Mikolas and Erick Fedde were also in the rotation for much of the season. Right now, the rotation is pound-for-pound better than last year simply because of this fact.

Liberatore hasn't gotten a ton of buzz coming out of his first start of the season, but he did everything the team needed on Thursday to be in a position to win and they did. So, don't sleep on Liberatore or this rotation. If the Cardinals are going to outperform the low expectations, it's going to be why.