Yeah, it's only one game. Only 161 to go and all of that. Understood. But goodness, didn't the first game of the Cardinals' 2011 season look like a replay from the disappointing middle of last August?

Padres 5, Cardinals 3.

It was 11 innings of baseball that seemed like 111, or at least extended spring training.

The home team had leads three times Thursday afternoon at Busch Stadium, only to come undone by slapdash defense, a picked-off runner, questionable strategy by manager Tony La Russa, three double-play rally-killing ground balls by Albert Pujols and the ceremonial first blown save by Ryan Franklin.

These events probably churned your stomach and had you reaching for the Zantac.

"It's a weird, difficult way to lose," La Russa said.

And if you think I'm being too negative on the morning after the season's first day, this is probably true. Then again, thousands of fans vacated Busch in the late innings, so I'm just going along with the crowd.

The exodus to the exits seemed to puzzle the new Cardinal, Lance Berkman.

"It was great," Berkman said when asked for his initial impression of the St. Louis baseball experience from a new perspective. "The energy was good. Unfortunately a lot of people left, I felt like toward the end of the game. But at the beginning of the game it was great."

If a lot of fans left early, it's probably because they'd seen this game before, in 2010. Many times.

Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter deserved a win. He went seven sturdy innings and allowed two hits and two runs. And one of the runs should have been prevented. Second baseman Skip Schumaker fumbled a caught-stealing tag of Ryan Ludwick in the fifth. It would have ended the inning.

And with Ludwick on second base, two out and the pitcher on deck, La Russa declined to issue an intentional walk to No. 8 hitter Nick Hundley, who doubled in Ludwick for a 2-2 tie. Why not just put Hundley on and take your shot at the pitcher?

Carpenter was abandoned by the bats; during his seven innings on the mound the Cardinals outhit the Padres 10-2 but scrimped for only two runs. There should have been more damage than that.

It was strange to see Pujols hit into three double plays. (And did we really hear a smattering of boos?) This is the kind of thing you don't see very often, or at all. Pujols had never hit into three double plays before. And in 1,559 regular-season games, he'd hit into two double plays in a game only eight times.

In what could be Pujols' final season as a Cardinal, he made it clear that there will be no hometown discount. These were full-cost double plays. Perhaps agent Dan Lozano will ask for $299 million instead of $300 mill. All kidding aside, at least Pujols got his annual bad game out of the way early. He'll be taking it out on pitchers for the next sixth months.

It wasn't so strange to see the first blown save of the season. Don't get me wrong; Franklin had a fine save rate the last two years. But he doesn't miss many bats; he had a swing-and-miss rate of 7 percent last season. And according to FanGraphs.com, on pitches in the strike zone, the contact rate against Franklin was 91 percent last season.

So yes, there will be contact. And if Franklin's stuff isn't sharp, there will be blood.

Franklin entered with the Cardinals leading 3-2 following Matt Holliday's first homer of the season. The Padres went on the attack, hacking at the first pitch. And after the first two hitters opened the ninth by drilling hard shots that found gloves, Franklin's first-pitch floating curveball to Cameron Maybin was smoked into the center field knoll for the game-tying homer.

Look, this is life with Franky, 38. He is not a strikeout pitcher. Most of the time Franklin can finesse his way through things with sleight of hand. Other times, the hitters thump him with the hammer. Either way, there will be contact. So better stock up on the Tums.

Things got worse in the extra frames, with the Padres getting two runs in the 11th largely because shortstop Ryan Theriot apparently believed the incoming baseball was a live grenade when he attemped to handle a cut-off throw by Jon Jay on a single to right. Chaos ensued, putting San Diego in the lead for good.

"A weird and tough way to lose," La Russa repeated.

It was just a poor display of fundamental baseball by the Cardinals. And yes, again, it was the first of 162 games. And yes, I'm trying to make light of it here. What else is there to do? Jump off a bridge on April 1? But you just wanted to walk into Busch Stadium to see a team that played cleaner, crisper baseball after the many fundamental goofs of 2010.

And that didn't happen the first time out. So yes, it goes into the books as a loss and a disappointment. And nothing more.

"That's one reason I don't like the beginning of the season, it's 'cause everybody makes a big deal out of the first part of the season," said Berkman, who had two hits and a run scored in his Cardinal debut. "We had a chance to win that game; we didn't win it. Move on to the next game."

On the positive end of things, Carpenter was strong. Third baseman David Freese made a couple of impressive plays, one that made ESPN's "Web Gems" on Thursday night.

Holliday had three hits, including the homer, and knocked in two of his team's three runs. And he also walked to reach base four times in five plate appearances. Holliday is poised to have a tremendous season; anyone who saw him in spring training will testify to that. SireHolliday was also picked off second base, but only because La Russa had his runners moving on a 3-1 count, and they left too soon. Easy pickings for Padres starting pitcher Tim Stauffer.

Another plus was the work of lefty relievers Trever Miller and Brian Tallet. But in a carryover from the spring there were problems with the righthanded relievers; Miguel Batista, Franklin and losing pitcher Jerry Augenstein combined to throw 2.2 innings and gave up six hits, a walk, the Franklin homer and two earned runs. This was a legitimate area of concern coming into the season, and the opener hardly soothed the anxiety. 

Oh, well. It was that kind of day.

"A really weird game in some ways," La Russa said again.

Not weird at all, really. More like an unpleasant flashback to the summer of 2010. It's one game.

And there is work to do.