The Palm Beach Cardinals (A-Advanced affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals) began their 2016 season on April 7th, where they faced off against the Charlotte Stone Crabs in the Florida State League at Roger Dean Stadium. And in the first game of the season, it was Palm Beach who emerged on top, winning 5-3.
For the Cardinals, they sent pitcher Jack Flaherty to the mound in his season debut.
But unfortunately, it was off to a rough start.
He started off by giving up a run off of a Cristian Toribio single, which was followed by another single from Justin Williams. The next batter, Grant Kay, grounded into a double play to end the inning. In the second inning, he allowed a solo home run to Bralin Jackson. After that, however, Flaherty calmed down, began to pitch more effectively, and did not give up another run through his five innings of work, and even striking out the last five batters he had faced.
Charlotte eventually headed into the sixth inning with a seemingly secure 3-0 lead. And it was at that moment the Cardinals’ bats began to wake up.
Nick Thompson led off the inning with a double, setting up momentum that would continue for the remainder of the game. Three batters later following Thompson’s double, Oscar Mercado singled him home on a deep line drive to the right field wall, making it a 3-1 game.
The Stone Crabs put in reliever Mike Franco to pitch the seventh inning, and while he did a successful job keeping it a 3-1 lead for Charlotte, it was in the eighth inning that the young pitcher ran into trouble. Steve Bean led off with a walk, Thompson reached on an error by Riley Unroe. Blake Drake singled afterwards to cut the score to 3-2. Only a few batters later, and not only did the Palm Beach Cardinals suddenly have a 5-3 lead, but a top-notch performance by the Crabs’ ace Brent Honeywell was wiped out: through the first three innings, he faced the minimum amount of batters, and left the game with the 3-1 lead intact.
As for Palm Beach, Rowan Wick, who pitched the eighth inning in a scoreless effort, earned the win, and closer Kevin Herget earned the save. The Cardinals pitching staff combined for a total of nine strike outs on the night.
“I thought it was good. You can see some of the guys, first year in the league, were a little nervous, but I think they settled in well. We saw a little bit of what we will see for the rest of the year as far as some exciting, young players.” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol on what he thought about his team on Opening Night.
