Cardinals and Rays accomplish Opening Day feat not done since 1890 Beaneaters and Bridegrooms

To begin the 2026 MLB season, the St. Louis Cardinals played host to the Tampa Bay Rays on Opening Day, welcoming the AL East team for the start of the year.

While St. Louis is just starting their rebuild, they ended up winning 9-7 over the Rays despite being down 7-1 at one point. But after an eight-run sixth inning, the Cardinals stormed back and won. But, amid this comeback was some wild MLB history.

According to Sarah Langs on Twitter/x, the Cardinals and Rays did something on Opening Day that hasn't been done since 1890 by two teams with incredible names in the Boston Beaneaters and Brooklyn Bridegrooms.

Cardinals, Rays combine to make wild MLB history

The Cardinals allowed the Rays to score six runs in the top of the sixth inning on Opening Day, and followed it up by scoring eight runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth inning.

"This was the 2nd Opening Day game in MLB history where both teams scored 6+ runs in the same inning, joining: 4/19/1890 Boston Beaneaters & Brooklyn Bridegrooms, 3rd inning, h/t @EliasSports," Langs shared.

On paper, the sixth inning of the Cardinals vs. Rays Opening Day game was a wild one already. However, with this new historical context, it becomes an even stranger outlier.

Only two Opening Day games in MLB history saw two teams score at least six runs in the same inning, making for an incredibly fun and rare statistic to begin the year for the Cardinals and Rays.

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The Beaneasters went on to become known as the Atlanta Braves, while the Bridegrooms would eventually become the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Boston won this Opening Day matchup back in 1890, 15-9, as both home teams in the Beaneaters and the Cardinals played host, and won in these wild games.

Even more eerie is that the runs scored were the same for both the winner and loser in these games. Boston and St. Louis scored eight runs, while Brooklyn and Tampa Bay scored six runs.

These are the only two games in MLB history with both teams scoring at least six runs in the same inning on Opening Day. It's history well over 136 years apart, and it shows just how incredible MLB's history is.

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