ST. LOUIS -- I'll try this again, this time a little louder for everyone way in the back: It didn't have to be this way.
But oh, my goodness, it's going to be.
See, if one weren't scientifically inclined to accept the cold fact that the Pittsburgh Baseball Club's 136th season opener Thursday at Busch Stadium played out exactly as anyone anywhere who cared would've predicted -- Cardinals 9, Pirates 0 -- then it'd be an awful lot of fun to surmise that it was more of a mystical thing.
Know what I mean?
Like, baseball gods 'n' at.
Like, say, for example, that the team's relentlessly and rightfully maligned ownership/management were to agree to terms on a franchise-record eight-year, $70 million extension with the organization's foundational third baseman ... only to see Ke'Bryan Hayes lifted with a forearm spasm before a solitary inning of the 2022 schedule was in the books.
Bemused, maybe confused baseball gods.
Like, say, for example, Kevin Newman being the starting shortstop rather than prodigious and very-much-ready prospect Oneil Cruz ... only to see Newman, a Gold Glove finalist in 2021, boot a routine bouncer, get caught stealing and roll into a 6-4-3 double play.
Bitter baseball gods.
Like, say, for example, JT Brubaker getting tagged for four runs in a three-inning start, most of that damage done by Tyler O'Neill's three-run bomb in the second ... only to see that same relentlessly and rightfully maligned ownership/management brought back to terra firma for having conceded the coming season by barely lifting a pinky finger to address the big-league rotation over the winter.
Vindictive, never-forgetting baseball gods.
If it seems like the Pirates can never have good things, my friends, even for an hour or two, it's because they don't push anywhere near hard enough to make them happen. Nor do they set any semblance of a broader expectation or accountability for the present.
"This was tough," Wil Crowe, one of the precious few who performed well for the visitors, told me afterward. "It's not what we want."
The manager sounded a similar note.
"It was great in terms of the fans and being in a full ballpark," Derek Shelton would say of the very St. Louis atmosphere. "The outcome was definitely not what we were looking for."
I believe that. I really do.
At the field level.
And I've very tentatively believed it at the ownership/management level, as it applies to all years beyond 2022, based on the real and encouraging growth in quality and quantity within the minors. As I write all the time, it's the right approach and, to date, sound execution.
But this season's a blatant punt, a can kicked down the road, and needlessly so.
Here's the evidence, fresh from the final moves made on this morning:

PIRATES
Sorry, but that's not even trying. And at the risk of getting repetitive, that never made sense, never needed to happen.
All I got.
Buckle up.
Better yet, book an overnight stay in Altoona, where all the most prominent prospects are now being stocked. That'll be the only serious baseball played in the organization all summer.

GETTY
The Cardinals' Tyler O'Neill lines an RBI single in the first inning Thursday in St. Louis.
• I'd reported a couple weeks ago in the Point Park University Friday Insider that the Pirates were planning to spend significant money before the start of the season. No specifics were offered, so I couldn't elaborate. But hey, it all wound up going to Hayes.
And yeah, this really was significant money. Per research by the New York Post, it's the richest contract in Major League Baseball history for a player between 1-2 years of service time:
#Hayes’ $70M agreement is largest ever given by #Pirates and largest ever for player with between 1-2 years of service time.
— Joel Sherman (@Joelsherman1) April 7, 2022
It's fair to the player, as it's all of the above plus $70 million in guaranteed cash. But I really like it from the Pirates' perspective, as it spans the five seasons for which they already held his rights, plus two years that would've been free agency, plus yet another via club option. It very much looks/feels like a lifetime contract.
I'd asked Hayes before the game if that meant something to him, staying in Pittsburgh, and his response was telling:
"From the get-go when I got drafted, that was one of my main goals," he replied, "to debut with the team that drafted me and play my whole career there."
Some guys speak it. Some put pen to paper.
• All that said, he's got to stay on the field. I also reported a couple weeks ago that the Pirates' primary trepidation in going long-term with Hayes was that they still haven't seen him hold down everyday duty. And with this specific matter, which Hayes acknowledged would be just fine after a spell in the hot tub ... dude.
• One might think Brubaker would be most bugged by the O'Neill home run, smashed to left off an elevated 0-1 fastball, that put St. Louis up, 4-0:
He'd given up 28 home runs in 2021, after all.
But I had a sense, based on our talks in Bradenton and based on his history of solid control, that it'd be more about the three walks, one of which came right before O'Neill's at-bat: Brubaker got ahead of Paul Goldschmidt with two sinkers for strikes, but he threw four straight balls.
"The walks are the main thing that don't sit well with me," Brubaker replied when I brought that up. "That's something I can control. And it's not who I am. I'm not someone who's going to walk the house. It was a little bit of a command issue with the slider today where I was getting the movement but just couldn't make the adjustment to keep it over the plate."
Two of those four straight balls to Goldschmidt were sliders.
• Crowe followed with two scoreless innings of relief, three strikeouts and two walks. He, too, struggled with the slider, but his changeup -- the one that salvaged at least his September in 2021 -- was spot-on, and his pace was far faster than anything I could recall from him, as we'd discuss:
"The key for me this offseason was to get the ball and go," he'd say of the pace. "And it doesn't just help the guys behind me, but it keeps me going. I'm not thinking about different things in the AB. It's just pitch. It's gonna help me a lot this year."
Hey, it's something.
• The lineup being topped by 270-pound Daniel Vogelbach will look unusual to anyone who tuned out spring training, but it didn't surprise him, as he'd told me in the morning he was "very" prepared for it. And, though he'd close out 0 for 3 with a strikeout, it did come with a plan, as he'd seen more pitches per plate appearance than any hitter anywhere in 2021 while with the Brewers.
I still asked Shelton about it beforehand, wondering if the 20-years-ago version of him would've had a Vogelbach at leadoff.
"Probably the 10-years-ago version of me wouldn't have been in favor of that," he'd answer after a loud laugh. "But we'll play to matchups. I think you'll see a bunch of different lineups that'll give everyone something to talk about. The one thing we've outlined is that we're gonna go out and attack starters. ... And I think the traditional way you look at lineups has changed a lot in terms of where the value's at. But I know it'll be a topic of conversation."
• Adam Wainwright did what he always does against this team, dominating his six innings -- five singles, six strikeouts, no walks -- and extending his scoreless streak against the Pirates to 32 innings.
Thirty. Two.
Despite, at least on this day, not one pitch clocking over 90 mph.
"It just means I've been here a while," he'd say on that subject with a small smile. "It means I've been part of a lot of really good teams."
He also acknowledged that he and Yadier Molina deciphered almost immediately what the Pirates' hitters had hoped to achieve off him.
"They had an approach on me today," Wainwright said, "and we found it out relatively quickly. They tried to adjust several times, and we just kept adjusting with them."
• The Pirates' 40-man roster payroll on this opening day was $49.2 million, accounting -- as MLB and the MLBPA do -- for Gregory Polanco's $3 million buyout of his 2022 club option, though any current-year adjustments for Hayes could raise it.
Another repeat: That's pathetic. The 2023 payroll needs to double that.
• The pregame ceremonies and so much of the adulation from the capacity crowd of 46,256 were aimed at Wainwright, Molina and the newly returned Albert Pujols, all of whom will be taking a season-long farewell tour together:
OG3 pic.twitter.com/ammdfiJjjJ
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) April 8, 2022
That's going to be fun for the faithful here, I'm sure, but the team to beat in the Central will be in Milwaukee. Not sure anyone's close to the Crew, actually.
• Take a quick walk with me through the ground-level concourse of Busch:
Happy as I was to be back at this level, and in the clubhouse, and on the field, I'd be remiss if I didn't share how much it also reminded of the loss of the late Bill Virdon. As I shared with Shelton before the game, Mr. Virdon was always at these games. In full uniform, no less. He lived in Jefferson, Mo., and being here anytime the Pirates played was his lasting connection to the franchise for which he was a World Series champion center fielder.
Rest in peace to the one and only Quail.
• Thanks for reading my baseball stuff, as always!

DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
National anthem, Thursday afternoon, Busch Stadium, St. Louis.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Standings
• Statistics
• Schedule
• Scoreboard
THE HIGHLIGHTS
THE INJURIES
• Ke'Bryan Hayes, third baseman, was removed from this game in the first inning with spasms in the left forearm. He's day to day.
• Duane Underwood, reliever, was removed in the sixth inning with right hamstring discomfort.
• 10-day injured list: OF Anthony Alford (right hand), LHP Sam Howard (back), RHP Max Kranick (forearm), RHP Luis Oviedo (right ankle)
• 60-day injured list: OF Greg Allen (hamstring), RHP Blake Cederlind (UCL), RHP Nick Mears (elbow surgery)
THE LINEUPS
Shelton's card:
1. Daniel Vogelbach, DH
2. Brian Reynolds, CF
3. Ke'Bryan Hayes, 3B
4. Yoshi Tsutsugo, 1B
5. Kevin Newman, SS
6. Cole Tucker, RF
7. Ben Gamel, LF
8. Roberto Perez, C
9. Hoy Park, 2B
And for Oli Marmol's Cardinals:
1. Dylan Carlson, RF
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 1B
3. Tyler O'Neill, LF
4. Nolan Arenado, 3B
5. Albert Pujols, DH
6. Paul DeJong, SS
7. Yadier Molina, C
8. Harrison Bader, CF
9. Tommy Edman, 2B
THE SCHEDULE
The obligatory day off follows the opener. Mitch Keller takes the mound for the second game Saturday, 2:15 p.m. Eastern, against Miles Mikolas. I'm flying home. Alex Stumpf will cover the rest of this four-game set, and we'll both be on hand for the home opener Tuesday.
THE CONTENT
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