(Photo credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images)

St. Louis Cardinals president John Mozeliak labeled the 2025 season as a transition year for the franchise after it cut payroll ahead of his final season at the helm.

But the Cardinals are off to a strong start after bidding farewell to veterans Paul Goldschmidt, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson and Andrew Kittredge and attempting to trade Nolan Arenado.

The Cardinals will try to complete a three-game sweep to open their season when they host the Minnesota Twins on Sunday afternoon. St. Louis posted a 5-3 win on Thursday and a 5-1 victory on Saturday.

Lars Nootbaar (4-for-7, homer, three runs, four RBIs), Ivan Herrera (4-for-7, two doubles, two RBIs), Arenado (4-or-8, double, homer, two runs, two RBIs) and Brendan Donovan (3-for-8, two RBIs) have paced the Cardinals' offense this season.

As a team, St. Louis is batting .308 with an .833 OPS.

'The guys have done a really, really nice job of taking their knocks,' manager Oliver Marmol said. 'Man, that's annoying when you're on the other side of that, when guys don't give in, figure out a way to put it in play and use the whole field.

'So there's kind of a personality, an overall identity that they're creating which is fun to watch.'

The Cardinals also received excellent pitching in their first two games while allowing just 11 hits in 18 innings.

Right-hander Andre Pallante, who was 8-8 with a 3.78 ERA last season, will try to pick up where Sonny Gray and Erick Fedde left off during their starts this season for St. Louis.

Pallante is 1-0 with a 1.13 ERA in his two career starts against Minnesota.

The Twins will try to get their offense on track after batting .172 in their first two games against the Cardinals.

Byron Buxton, Carlos Correa and Matt Wallner each started the season by remaining hitless in eight at-bats. Ty France and Jose Miranda each started 1-for-7, and catchers Ryan Jeffers and Christian Vazquez combined to start 1-for-7.

'We want to keep just barreling a lot of balls,' Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. 'That's really the name of the game. We'd like more than what we've had, but we've had some guys hit some balls hard. Ty (France) has had good at-bats. Most of his swings have been outs, but they're barrels, they've been really good swings. And there's a few other guys, too.

'The guys who are swinging good but not getting much out of it, they need to keep doing what they're doing and not do anything else.'

One of Minnesota's highlights Saturday was Mickey Gasper's first big league hit. He was 0-for-20 before breaking through with a single through the left side of the infield in the eighth inning.

Gasper, 29, who has 1,600 minor league plate appearances, made the Opening Day roster as an injury replacement. His parents were in St. Louis this weekend to see him get his first hit.

'That's why you play, for them,' Gasper said. 'All the hours my dad, my mom put in getting me to practices and games, coaching, it's really all for them.'

The Twins will counter Pallante on Sunday with right-hander Bailey Ober, who was 12-9 with a 3.98 ERA last season.

Ober struck out six in four innings in his only career appearance against the Cardinals. He allowed one run on four hits in four innings in that appearance in 2021.

--Field Level Media