ST. LOUIS — When the Cardinals described the offense they need to have this season as “exhausting” to play against, the sixth inning of Thursday’s opener is even more than what they had in mind.

Down by six runs and teetering on what could have been a season-opening thud, the first seven batters of the sixth inning reached base. And they didn’t just play the hits. They played a medley of them. Cardinals reached base with a classic double, a ground-ball single, an automatic double, a line drive the other way, a bunt single and ultimately a home run to clear the bases and seize a lead the bullpen would not relinquish.

The Cardinals want to be exhausting.

They were definitely exhaustive.

Alec Burleson punctuated the sixth-inning rally with a two-run, 432-foot homer that sent the Cardinals to a 9-7 victory to open the 2026 season at Busch Stadium. A sellout crowd of 45,037 saw the Cardinals offense, a question coming into the season, erupt for eight runs and eight hits in the bottom of the sixth.

Burleson’s first home run of the season ended the scoring for the Cardinals that, a few innings earlier, rookie JJ Wetherholt’s first home run of his career started. Wetherholt’s solo shot to lead off the third inning was the Cardinals’ lone run before flexing their offensive variety in the sixth.

Ryne Stanek pitched around three base runners in the ninth inning to secure the save in his first appearance as a Cardinal in St. Louis, where he was born.

Before the final out of the game, the teams had combined for 31 hits, 38 base runners and 28 at-bats with runners in scoring position — and the Rays had the bases loaded.

They would stay that way as Stanek struck out former Cardinals Richie Palacios to end the game.

In his first opening day start, Matthew Liberatore navigated through some troublesome innings against his first team, the Rays. The lefty struck out two and allowed seven hits and nine base runners in his five innings.

Wetherholt’s monster first MLB hit

In the second at-bat of his big league career, Wetherholt shattered a scoreless tie with the first hit and first home run in the majors.

His first current call would come a few minutes later.

After working the count full through seven pitches to lead off the first inning and then flying out to center, Wetherholt remained aggressive in his second at-bat. He swung at a first-pitch cutter and tried for a second-pitch fastball. He missed on both to fall behind 0-2 to Rays starter Drew Rasmussen.

But when the right-hander went back to the fastball that Wetherholt just missed and had fouled off several times in the first inning, the rookie pounced. He drilled the 94.5 mph fastball 425 feet to dead-center, landing right there on Freese’s lawn, not too far from where a now-famous October homer landed.

Wetherholt hit leadoff in his major league debut after several weeks of manager Oli Marmol auditioning him and evaluating him for that spot in the lineup.

The rookie made the decision easy for the Cardinals, not just because of his spring production but his poise.

“He never gave us any reason to think he shouldn’t be there,” said new president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. “I think that’s true to where he’s hitting in the lineup. It should be fun.”

Wetherholt started the Cardinals season with his first at-bat, he started the Cardinals’ scoring with his first homer and he continued the comeback in the sixth with a sacrifice fly to right field.

The sixth got serious

Just when it seemed the opener was about to get completely away from the Cardinals, they did more than match the Rays’ outburst in the sixth inning. They surpassed it.

All it took was an inning unlike any they had in 2025.

Oh, and 51 minutes.

By the end of the sixth inning, the two teams would combine for 15 hits, 14 runs and 22 batters at the plate. They would spiral through six different pitchers.

It took the Cardinals three relievers to get three outs in the inning and halt Tampa Bay but not before the Rays had opened up a six-run lead. Tampa Bay sent 11 batters to the plate and peppered Cardinals relievers Matt Svanson, Justin Bruihl and Chris Roycroft with a parade of base runners.

A two-run single from Jonny DeLuca was the biggest run-producing hit in the inning, but tucked within that rally was also a spoil from the Brendan Donovan trade. The Rays latched onto the deal with Seattle and the Cardinals to get infielder Ben Williamson. He scored the sixth and final run of that top of the sixth to bring the Rays to a 7-1 lead.

It didn’t last three outs.

The Cardinals greeted the Rays bullpen with seven consecutive hits to begin the sixth inning. Nolan Gorman slipped a two-run single up the middle to begin the scoring, and Nathan Church followed with a two-run slash down the left field line.

The rally picked up even more speed when Victor Scott II dropped a bunt to load the bases for Wetherholt.

Even the Cardinals’ first two outs of the inning scored runs.

Wetherholt launched a fly ball to right that was caught near the track for a sacrifice fly. Ivan Herrera followed with an another sacrifice fly to right field. And then Burleson had his blast that the right fielder had no chance to catch. Herrera’s sacrifice fly tied the game. Burleson muscled the lead back for the Cardinals.

The eight runs scored in the sixth were more runs than the Cardinals in a single inning in 2025.

Little things, big contributions

Nathan Church, whose strong spring won a starting spot in left field for Thursday’s opener, and Scott had flashes that were overwhelmed by the eight-run sixth but no less vital to the Cardinals’ taking a lead into the ninth inning.

In the fifth inning of a game the Cardinals led 1-0 at the time, Church jumped to reach over the wall and rob a home run from Rays left fielder and former Cardinal Ryan Vilade. Church later went against the grain for his two RBIs in the big-burst sixth inning.

That was the same inning when Scott stole his second base of the game. The Cardinals center fielder reached base three times, got into scoring position each of those teams and got a head start on his stolen base goals with two.

First ABS happens, yay

The first Automated Ball-Strike (ABS) System challenge in Busch Stadium history happened in the sixth inning when Rays catcher Nick Fortes took issue with a ball called on Gorman. Fortes challenged a 0-0 pitch to get his reliever ahead in the count, and the ABS review proved he was right. Down 0-1 in the count, Gorman didn’t flinch and a few pitches later delivered the two-run single that was a key part of the rally.

Two challenges in the ninth came in the same plate appearance that produced a walk that put Jonathan Aranda on base as the potential tying run. The Cardinals lost their challenge.

RISP-y business

Through five innings, neither team had much success doing anything more than generating base runners and then marooning them.

The Rays and Cardinals were a combined 0 for 13 when they had a runner on second, third or both.

The Cardinals were 0 for 6 and did not have a ball out of the infield.

The trouble with runners in scoring position illuminated the challenges facing the Cardinals when it comes to scoring runs. They’ve got to stack hits to do it, and when an error and single put the first two batters of the second inning on base, they needed another string of hits to spin that opportunity into a run. It collapsed into a jumble of ground balls, one of which was a double play.

The Cardinals’ opportunity in the bottom of the first ended when Rasmussen struck out back-to-back batters to end the inning and strand two.

The Rays’ difficulty producing with runners in scoring position reeked of chances that might catch up with them. The Cardinals did their best to avoid Tampa Bay’s cleanup crusher Junior Caminero in the early innings by walking him in each of his first two plate appearances, and the two-out walk in the first inning did give the Rays a chance with two runners on base. The inning fizzled.

Three Rays had an at-bat with runners in scoring in the second, and all three failed to produce a run against Liberatore.

By the end of the fifth, the Rays had stranded eight batters and were 0 for 7.

All of that pent-up RISP production let loose in the sixth.

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