Alec Burleson capped an eight-run sixth inning with a two-run homer to help the St. Louis Cardinals rally for a 9-7 victory against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays in the season opener for both teams on Thursday afternoon.
Burleson’s home run came after the Rays had scored six runs in the top half of the sixth to take a 7-1 lead.
Burleson had three hits, scored twice and drove in two runs. Nathan Church had three hits, drove in two and robbed a home run in left field, Victor Scott II also had three hits and JJ Wetherholt homered in his major league debut for St. Louis.
Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore allowed one run and seven hits in five innings.
Jonathan Aranda homered and singled while Yandy Diaz, Ben Williamson and Nick Fortes each had three hits and one run and Jonny DeLuca added two hits and two RBIs for Tampa Bay.
Rays right-hander Drew Rasmussen also allowed one run over five innings, scattering four hits and one walk.
Wetherholt, the seventh overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft, led off the third in his second MLB at-bat and blasted a 425-foot homer to center on an 0-2 pitch to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
Church leaped to rob Ryan Vilade of a home run for the second out in the fifth, but Aranda came up next and cleared the fence in right-center field to tie it 1-1.
Liberatore departed and the Rays loaded the bases with one out in the sixth. Justin Bruihl surrendered a pinch-hit RBI single to left by Chandler Simpson to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead.
After a sacrifice fly by Aranda, Williamson drove in another run with an infield single to extend the lead to 4-1. DeLuca then rolled a full-count grounder up the middle with the bases loaded, scoring two more runs.
Fortes came up for the second time in the inning and beat out another slow roller to score Williamson for a 7-1 lead.
Nolan Gorman cut it to 7-3 in the bottom half of the sixth with a groundball single up the middle that scored two.
Jordan Walker doubled over the head of center fielder Cedric Mullins, bringing up Church, who lined an opposite-field two-run single to left to cut it to 7-5.
With the bases still loaded and nobody out, Wetherholt lifted a sacrifice fly to deep right to cut it to 7-6.
After Ivan Herrera tacked on another sacrifice fly to tie it 7-7, Burleson stepped up and blasted a two-run homer to deep right to put St. Louis in front.
JoJo Romero, Riley O’Brien and Ryne Stanek combined to blank Tampa Bay over the final three innings.
