Brendan Donovan's Opening Day performance gives cause for optimism

The Cardinals lost, but Donovan's day at the plate hinted at a promising trend

As you are grimly aware, the Cardinals on Thursday at Busch blew multiple middle- and late-inning leads on the way to a 10-9 loss to the Blue Jays, who benefited all day from well-placed soft contact at the plate. Despite the fact that our beloved squadron is presently on pace to go 0-162 this season, there are some reasons to take heart. Most obviously, it’s the offense, which slashed .366/.447/.561 for the game, hung nine runs on the board (five on Toronto starter Alek Manoah, who finished third in the AL Cy Young balloting last year), and notched a number of well struck balls. 

Speaking of well struck balls – and to arrive at the thrust of this post – there’s second baseman and leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan.