The Cardinals have had better weeks. When I first noticed the schedule to begin the 2023 season, I had one reaction: oh no. This was a gauntlet and I would be delighted to go 6-6 in that span. They can still do that, technically. But sweeping at Coors Field would be... unexpected. You legitimately could not have constructed a better schedule if your goal was to make the pitching look as bad as possible.
They faced the #2 offense in all of baseball last year, and the #7 offense in the Atlanta Braves (lower than I thought, but their outfield was kind of a disaster outside of Michael Harris II), then ran into a hotter than hot Milwaukee offense (who was 11th in wRC+ last year and likely improved), plus now they get to go to Coors Field.