Opening Day.
Adam Wainwright pitches 7 innings, surrenders 0 runs and the Cardinals win 1-0. The bare minimum amount a baseball team can win by.
Yadier Molina hits 1 home run, has 1 RBI and the Cardinals win 1-0. The bare minimum amount a baseball team can win by.
One game. One win. Each player not just vital, but directly responsible for their teams success. This is what WAR (wins above replacement) is all about, right? Not really. Not at all. Feel free to read the complete explanation via that link or just know that the higher the number over 0 the better.
Still – at least for 1 game it should be.
The Cardinals two biggest “stars” showed up on Opening Day and help tally a win when just about every other Cardinal not named Carlos Martinez (side note: Carlos may not surrender a hit all season. Or ever…) was doing a Benny Hill impression in the field and at the plate.
Wong, Bourjos and Matt Adams all recorded errors. Marp, Holliday, Peralta and Craig all went sans hits.
A win in March counts the same as a win in September and the Cardinals will take it to move 1 game over .500 and keep the perfect season alive at least until Wednesday.
Days like today are why Wainwright and Molina get the big bucks. Maybe it didn’t technically count as full WAR point on Baseball-Reference, but still – close enough.
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