Pittsburgh — Clint Hurdle spent spring training tinkering with the Pittsburgh Pirates lineup and preaching the importance of selflessness. Of moving runners over. Of being patient at the plate and aggressive on the bases.

The message found an unlikely landing spot in pitcher Francisco Liriano.

The veteran tied a Pirates opening day record by striking out 10 and singled home the first run of the 2016 Major League Baseball season for good measure, sending Pittsburgh past the St. Louis Cardinals 4-1 on Sunday.

It was 39 degrees when Liriano threw the first pitch of the year at sunny but frosty PNC Park. He allowed just three hits and walked five in six shutout innings. His RBI hit in the second came off Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright.

“Just trying to take good at-bats and put the ball in play,” Liriano said.

A refrain his manager repeated over and over during the offseason after Pittsburgh traded second baseman Neil Walker and cut first baseman Pedro Alvarez, an exodus of power the Pirates knew they couldn’t replace. So instead Hurdle got creative, placing catcher turned first basman John Jaso atop the order and bumping Andrew McCutchen from third to second and emphasizing the need to take smart chances to generate offense.

“You need to be able to perform in the box and execute,” Hurdle said. “You know there’s some at-bats to sacrifice.”

Wainwright gave up three runs in six innings, walking three and striking out three in his first regular season start since tearing his Achilles last April.

“I certainly got better as I went along,” Wainwright said. “But I’m still a little off timing or something, there’s something that has not clicked yet.”

The Cardinals left 10 men on base, including two in the ninth against Mark Melancon, who led the majors in saves last year. Matt Carpenter hit an RBI single with two outs but Matt Adams, representing the tying run, flied out to end it.

“We had guys in scoring position with less than two outs more than once and that’s something we take a lot of pride in figuring out how to get it done,” manager Mike Matheny said. “It just didn’t happen today.”

Blue Jays 5, Rays 3

St. Petersburg, Fla. — Marcus Stroman outpitched Chris Archer in his first opening day start, helping the Toronto Blue Jays begin defense of their first AL East title in 22 years by beating Tampa Bay.

Stroman allowed three runs and six hits over eight-plus innings. Roberto Osuna got three outs.

Troy Tulowitzki hit the first home run of the 2016 MLB season, a two-run shot for Toronto. Edwin Encarnacion had two hits and drove in two runs after not batting in a major league exhibition game.