WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. • In what must have seemed like a stroke of managerial genius, the Cardinals’ Mike Matheny installed neophyte outfielder Matt Adams in left field for the Cardinals’ exhibition Friday with Washington.
Not only did Adams have a hit, which led to a run in the seventh inning of a 3-1 victory, the Cardinals’ fifth in a row, but he had nary a fly ball hit to him in his six innings in the field as he made his first start as a flyhawk. The moment Adams came out, Harrison Bader, who replaced him, had the first fly ball hit in the seventh inning come to him.