DOWNTOWN — His convertible just pulled up last, the tail end of today’s ceremonial player introductions. Clearly the order was not selected by Opening Day performance.

Cardinals infielder Aaron Miles will make the third Opening Day start of his career today, and he brings an uncanny streak of performances into it. He’s yet to make a start on the first afternoon of the season and not get at least five hits. A couple doubles? Sigh. Par for the course.

In two previous Opening Day starts, Miles is 9-for-11 with five runs scored and five doubles.

“Pitchers aren’t concerned about me, you could say, I guess,” said Miles. ”It’s the excitement of Opening Day, everybody is pumped up. I guess I’ve always been lucky, too.”

Miles, the switch-hitting second baseman, is stashed in the No. 9 spot Monday for the Cardinals opener against Colorado. When asked if it was Miles’ past Opening Day performances that got him into the lineup Monday, manager Tony La Russa just smirked. “I noticed,” he said. Really, Miles is in because he offers a righthander complement to usual starter Adam Kennedy. (Kennedy will start the next two games of this series.) Miles hit .292 and slugged .353 from the right side of the plate, both better (though only slightly) than what he did from the left side.

Miles had a sense he’d be starting Monday against his former team, mainly because he is 4-for-10 in his career against the Rockies starter, lefty Jeff Francis.

But, for another opening day, he wasn’t sure.

Back in 2004, Miles was Colorado’s everyday second baseman, just not their Opening Day second baseman because of a bad matchup. The next year, he was the Rockies’ second baseman and leadoff hitter and open the season with a 5-for-6 game, cracking three doubles and scoring three runs. In 2006, it was another surprise start, though Miles said he had a bit of warning. He knew a few days before the Cardinals asked Junior Spivey to go to Triple-A that he had won the role, and that he would start Opening Day in Philadelphia.

He continued his torrid spring with four hits, going 4-for-5 with two doubles and a couple RBIs.

Miles figures his springs are part of why he has such starts. He’s rarely gone into spring with a defined job; he’s usually had to win one.

“You’re excited and your adrenaline is pumping,” Miles said. ”The competition I’ve usually had to go through in spring training to make a team and be a starter gets me ready to go for the season. It’s an excting day and I just stepped out of the cage and hopefully I can do something exciting today, too.”

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So, Ryan Ludwick and Skip Schumaker are starting in right and left field, respectively, because of the hand they throw with, La Russa said. The manager believes it’s an easier throw for Ludwick from right field because Ludwick is Rickey-like — throws left, hits right.

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Colorado manager Clint Hurdle on not having Barry Bonds with San Francisco: “Yeah, sure, it does (change things). You’re always aware of where he is in the lineup. Didn’t make me sleep any different.”

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Hurdle on whether Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols has ascended into that aware-where-he-is class of greatness: “Pujols is starting to knock on that door. He’s starting to knock on that door. To be great, you need to be good for a long time. Albert has been good, and it’s starting to turn into great.”

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