ST. LOUIS — If the sheer quantity of leads the St. Louis Cardinals’ relievers squandered last season wasn’t lesson enough, the bullpen reminded everyone early on opening day that not all blown saves are created equally.

Before the Cardinals could even pitch out of the sixth inning, the bullpen was tagged with its first blown save of the season — the first blown save in the National League this season. For a club that led the league with 31 last season and was, at one point, on pace to break the league record for blown saves, this was a quick return of the “BS” to the box score.

But this was not your 2008 blown save.

The first one of the day was on the starter.

Adam Wainwright got as far as 94 pitches would take him, and it was about as far as he got in any spring training start. Wainwright left with a 2-0 lead, two runners on base and only 16 outs collected from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Of his 94 pitches, only 54 were strikes. In the sixth inning, Wainwright walked two of the three batters he faced. The walks meant he didn’t finish the inning.

And he left the bullpen a mess to clean up and too many innings to cover.

“I could get another out right there and put that in the books,” Wainwright said to reporters after the game, “and carry the team hopefully another inning even after that if I can get (Brandon Moss) out right there.”

Added manager Tony La Russa in his post-game comments: “Believe me he’s not happy about that. He walked the pitcher one time. Then he strikes out the first baseman to leadoff the (sixth) inning. And then he walks the (next two batters). Those are things he’s kicking himself about because he had an opportunity to get deeper into that game.”

It’s exactly what the Cardinals wanted to avoid this week. With few off days in the near future, they wanted to avoid testing — and over-using — the relievers.

Cast in the Russ Springer role this season, Josh Kinney entered with the runners on base — as he often will this season — and got the first batter he faced to pop-up on a full-count slider. But he went 3-0 on the Pirates’ pitcher, Paul Maholm, and walked him. Lefty specialist Trever Miller followed and allowed lefthanded hitter Nyjer Morgan to float a two-run, game-tying single to left-center field. Oh, and then there were still 10 more outs to get for the bullpen.

One of the reasons the Cardinals insisted on carrying a long-reliever into the regular season was the possibility of games like this — and one off day between now and May 11. The starters this spring didn’t get deep into games, didn’t show consistent economy with their pitches and the April schedule is prone to wear down a bullpen. Toss in the plan to circulate some of the roles for the relievers, and the Cardinals are … well, inviting the situation they had forced upon last season.

And last year was littered with blown saves as a result.

Kyle McClellan, who had a rickety spring training, rescued both the bullpen for another day and the Cardinals with his 1 1/3 innings of work. He retired four of the five batters he faced, including Jack Wilson had a filthy curveball that froze him. The righthander not only set the Cardinals up to take the lead — as they did on Ryan Ludwick’s solo home run to lead off the eighth — but also bridged a rather imposing gap between the middle-inning foibles that followed Wainwright’s early departure and the arm who is warming up in the bullpen right now.

At the time of the first publishing of this blog, Jason Motte is throwing, reading himself for the ninth, his first ninth — with a two-run lead. Four runs later, his ninth inning ended with the Cardinals second blown save of the game. That one is on the bullpen.

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