LIVE from Busch Stadium throughout the day

4:25 p.m.

Garcia gets into a jam in the fourth inning after giving up his first hit of the afternoon.

Quick thinking by third baseman David Freese on a fielder's choice to chase down Chris Heisey at home saved the Cardinals a run when Jay Bruce followed up with a single. Garcia then polished off the inning with back-to-back strikeouts to Todd Frazier and Zack Cozart.

Garcia so far: 4 IP, 6 K, two hits, 2 BB, 1 ER.

Cardinals 2- Reds 1

Middle 4th

3:55 p.m.

Garcia taking the Reds in short order through two innings. He's struck out four on only 24 pitches (9-pitch second inning). He's keeping hitters, well, confused.

A leadoff single by Jon Jay followed by a walk from Holliday put runners on in the first. A wild pitch from Latos moved the runners into scoring position, but Shin Soo Choo's error on a deep fly ball to center from Yadier Molina allowed them to score.

Cardinals 2- Reds 0

2:20 p.m.

Ceremonies should be kicking off in just a few minutes. Alumni have been arriving in droves this morning for the festivities.

In the last few minutes they brought out four of the World Series trophies and placed them on stands around the home plate circle.

1:30 p.m.

Just a short bit ago the game ball arrived via Ozzie Smith. It's been involved in a relay all morning from Rawlings to Busch Stadium.

The teams are clearing the field now and the grounds crew is putting away the cages, etc. and will be putting the final touches on the field for pre-game ceremonies.

12:45 p.m.

Matheny just held a brief press conference in the dugout. The most important take would be his thoughts on David Freese: "If he wasn't 100 percent he wouldn't be here. He's ready to go."

He also talked about the difference in Opening Day in St. Louis compared to the other two they just experienced. That will be in tomorrow's column.

12:00 p.m.

Cardinals lineup released

1. J. Jay-CF

2. C. Beltran-RF

3. M. Holliday-LF

4. A. Craig-1B

5. Y. Molina-C

6. D. Freese-3B

7. D. Descalso-2B

8. P. Kozma-SS

9. J. Garcia-P

No Matt Carpenter, at least not starting.

11:20 a.m.

Welcome back to baseball readers! People are literally out in droves today (and have been since I arrived at the stadium around 9:30). There's still a little time before the clubhouse opens, but just a few tidbits:

-Make sure to check back to this blog throughout the day. I'll be posting updates in addition to my usual column which will come later tonight.

-David Freese is here and will be in today's starting lineup.

-It's 67 degrees at 11 a.m. I look for it to be quite warm by first pitch. It's also sunny and quite windy today so it will be interesting to see how that affects gameplay.

-Of the Cardinals 60 hits to date, only 17 have been for extra bases. That's an interesting number and shows a trend toward small ball. We'll see if that continues today.