Opening Game

That's a way to open a baseball season. Two jacks by Pujols, Aaron Miles going 4-5, Eckstein diving into walls, and Carpenter throwing great until he was given a 10-run lead. All of this lead to a 13-5 Opening Day victory against the Philadelphia Phillies. Jon Lieber usually pitches well against the Cardinals; obviously not this time around. The game was not on television up here in Chicago so I have only seen ESPN highlights. Not sure if Lieber was throwing horribly, not getting calls, or what, but he got rocked.
The most important thing, to me, was Scott Rolen hitting a grand slam in the top of the fourth off of reliever Julio Santana. Rolen getting off to a good start would be great for the Cardinals. He went 3-for-5. Every columnist in every newspaper stated before the season started that Rolen was the key to this season for the Cardinals. I generally try to form my own opinions, not conforming to what I read in the paper, but I agree with the newspaper people this season. He will be the key to this offense becoming the machine it has been the past couple of years. I know what you are going to say: "I saw the highlights and anyone that played high school baseball could have hit that hanging slider out for a grand slam." Well, maybe so. But, still, early in the season batters are looking fastball, waiting to get accustomed to the breaking stuff. It was a great shot for Rolen, and if his good swings continue, the Cardinals will be hard to beat early this season.
As I said earlier, I only saw highlights...my Extra Innings package didn't carry the game yesterday. Please fill me in on any other highlights that I may have missed or other points of note.