Thunderous applause and roaring cheers followed Arenado throughout the day: When he first took the field on the back of a Ford-150 truck — a home opener tradition — and circled the field, when he was introduced before his first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning and during each of his at-bats that followed.

Nolan Arenado's eighth-inning homer Thursday had plenty of extra meaning after he spent much of the offseason on the trading block, and Cardinals fans knew it, bringing him out for a curtain call.

New hitting coach Brant Brown’s approach to hitting and teaching it to St. Louis’ hitters -- “there’s a time to slug and a time to hit,” he stressed repeatedly throughout Spring Training -- is already paying big dividends for the undefeated Cardinals.

Lars Nootbaar had two hits and two RBIs, helping Erick Fedde and the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Minnesota Twins 5-1 on Saturday. Nolan Arenado, Iván Herrera and Victor Scott II also had two hits apiece for St.