ST. LOUIS — For the third straight year, the Pablo López opened the Twins’ season in Missouri.

Make a note for the future: He’s better across the river from Kansas than Illinois.

López, who allowed just one run and collected a pair of wins in his two Opening Day starts in Kansas City, wasn’t as sharp at Busch Stadium on Thursday. The Twins’ right-hander allowed hits to eight of the first 15 Cardinals he faced, committed a balk and threw a ball into center field for an error, and absorbed the Twins’ first loss of the season, 5-3 before a sellout crowd of 47,395.

López got the start, in part, because of his unflappability amid distractions, manager Rocco Baldelli said.

“You kind of have to ride the energy on Opening Day and win the game cause no one really feels relaxed like they normally do or play the game like they normally do,” Baldelli said. “That comes later this week, like later on. Go out there and just kind of ride the high today and get it done.”

But it was a former, not a current, Twin who got it done.

Sonny Gray was sharp against his former team, striking out six in five innings and making only one major mistake: A middle-of-the-plate sweeper that former Cardinal Harrison Bader drove into the left-field seats, a two-run shot that quieted the fans who had cheered his return to Busch Stadium.

Still, those two runs were the most Gray had ever allowed in four career Opening Day starts. Gray improved to 3-0 with a 1.08 in season-openers, two of them with Oakland and one with Cincinnati.