It may have taken the Cardinals 17 days to get back on the field, but it didn’t take long for them to grab a lead and a win in their first game back.

A four-run first inning led to a 5-1 win over the White Sox in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field.

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Leadoff hitter Kolten Wong set the tone with an eight-pitch walk in White Sox starter Lucas Giolito’s 34-pitch inning. After Tommy Edman singled and Paul Goldschmidt struck out for the first out, Giolito hit Tyler O’Neill and Matt Carpenter to plate the first run and load the bases for top prospect Dylan Carlson, making his Major League debut.

Carlson struck out, but the rally continued.

“I think [Wong's leadoff walk] really gave us a gust in our sails," O'Neill said after the Cards swept the doubleheader with a 6-3 win in Game 2. "Giving us some confidence, like, hey, we’re competing out here. We’re pros. Just because we were out for three weeks or so doesn’t mean we’re going to cave in. We’re going to give it our all out there. We put a lot of team at-bats together, got some guys on and were able to drive some in.”

Dexter Fowler followed Carlson with a two-run single, doubling his RBI total for the season with one swing. Andrew Knizner singled in the fourth run to assure that the Cardinals would send all nine batters to the plate in the first inning. The frame ended when Fowler was thrown out at home on Harrison Bader’s single.

“Those four runs in the first, that was something that I think really put our whole team at ease a little bit, like, 'Welcome back,'” starter Adam Wainwright said. “Because you can think about it all you want to and prepare for it, but when you haven’t played in weeks, you’re never really sure about what’s going to happen on the field once guys get on there. Our guys did such a good job of making good swings against a very, very tough pitcher.”

It was the first lead the Cardinals took since the third inning on July 26, against the Pirates. St. Louis didn’t have a lead during the two-game series in Minneapolis, the final series the club played before a coronavirus outbreak in the organization paused its schedule for more than two weeks. Saturday’s first game was the Cardinals’ sixth of the season. It was Chicago’s 20th game.

Wainwright made his second start of the season and held the White Sox to one run across five innings, allowing two hits and striking out three. Reliever Giovanny Gallegos threw 12 pitches (10 strikes) to strike out the side in the sixth inning, and John Gant worked around a double from Luis Robert to finish the game.

Although Cardinals pitchers and hitters have been able to work out in their home setups this past week while quarantining, and the team allowed short, individual workouts at Busch Stadium for those who were cleared, the Cardinals (3-3) haven’t had live game action since July 29, a 3-0 loss to the Twins at Target Field. In fact, the Cardinals had barely been together as a team in more than a week, even going so far as to drive individual rental cars from St. Louis to Chicago on Friday in an effort to stay apart as long as possible.

It was the first time, Wainwright said, he’d driven himself to a road game since 2000, the year he was drafted by the Braves. 

“It was very similar to my summer baseball days back in the day,” he said. “I was thinking maybe Mom would pop around the corner with some orange slices and a Capri Sun to give you some sugar in between games.

“You just got to do what you got to do. At this point you kind of almost laugh at everything that you have to do. It’s just a sign of the times. We’re in a weird phase right now. Everyone had a great attitude about it.”

The Cardinals all drove to the ballpark on Saturday, so the first time they were together as a team was their pregame warmups, an hour and a half before first pitch.

It only took a few minutes into the game to get everybody involved.