ST. LOUIS — In an era when velocity has received way too much attention in how pitchers are judged, Adam Wainwright offered another reminder on Monday that there is far more to pitching than just how hard somebody throws.
Wainwright threw seven shutout innings to send the Cardinals to the win over the Giants, their fourth win in the conclusion of a five-game marathon in about 51 hours at Busch Stadium.
Of the 96 pitches than Wainwright threw, only two were clocked at 91 miles per hour. He allowed only four hits, did not walk a batter and only had one strikeout in his dominating performance.
Wainwright is now 7-3 at home and lowered his ERA at Busch this season to 2.43, the lowest of any Cardinals’ starter.
The win allowed the Cardinals to stay three games ahead of the Cubs in the NL Central.
Here is how the game broke down:
At the plate: Kolten Wong remained hot with a first-inning triple, driving in Dexter Fowler, who led off the inning with a single. Wong then scored on a Paul Goldschmidt groundout … Goldschmidt double and scored on a Paul DeJong single in the third … The Cardinals had just one hit after that in the game, a leadoff double by Tommy Edman in the seventh but he was stranded at third base thanks to a diving catch by Kevin Pillar in right center which robbed Wong of another extra-base hit and two RBIs … Marcell Ozuna was 0-of-4 and is now hitless in his last 19 at-bats … Yadier Molina’s strikeout to end the eighth inning was his first in a span of 45 consecutive plate appearances.
On the mound: Wainwright recorded 10 of his 21 outs on fly balls to the outfield. His only strikeout came against Brandon Belt to end the third inning. He retired 10 of the last 11 hitters he faced and only allowed one runner to reach second base … The only Giants run came on a home run by Maurico Dubon leading off he eighth off Giovanny Gallegos, only the second homer he has allowed in 40 innings since May 24 … Andrew Miller walked Austin Slater with one out in the eighth to bring the tying run to the plate, but he struck out Belt and Carlos Martinez struck out Evan Longoria to end the inning. Martinez completed the save, retiring the Giants in order in the ninth.
Key stat: Wong has tripled in each of his last three games, the first Cardinal to do that since Luis Alicea in 1992. Only two Cardinals in the team’s history have hit a triple in four consecutive games, Rogers Hornsby in 1917 and Tommy Herr in 1981. Wong has a streak of at least one extra-base hit in his last six games, matching Goldschmidt’s streak from earlier this season.
Worth noting: Edmundo Sosa, who joined the team from Memphis on Monday, pinch-ran for Matt Carpenter following a walk in the seventh and stole second. He became the 18th Cardinal with at least one stolen base this season … Goldschmidt was back in the lineup after sitting out the second game of the doubleheader on Sunday, the first game he has missed this season. That means no Cardinal will play in every game this season…
The minor-league regular season ended on Monday and Dylan Carlson was 3-of-5 for Memphis with his fifth Triple A home run. Carlson hit .361 in 18 games following his promoted from Springfield and for the season had combined totals of 26 homers, a .292 average, 28 doubles, 68 RBIs and 20 stolen bases. He now will have a couple of weeks off before the start of the Arizona Fall League season.
