(Busch Stadium) For the second time in as many games, the starting pitching lead the way for the St. Louis Cardinals as Adam Wainwright delivered 6.0 shutout innings and a 2-run homer at the plate to help his team blank the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0.
“It’s not all on Carlos and I, but it truly helps if your starters go out there and throw some good games up and help your offense around a little bit, because they’re not giving many runs away over there on the other side,” said Wainwright. “To win those last two games gives us some good momentum, let’s us know we can play with the best teams out there when we play our game and just keep going.”
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The home run was the 10th in his career for Wainwright, who now moves into sole possession of 4th place amongst Cardinals pitchers behind Bob Gibson (24), Jack Stivetts (14), and Bob Forsch (12).
“He threw me a couple of nasty cutters away that I took and threw me that strike breaking ball before,” explained Wainwright of his at-bat. “I think as athletes in here, sometimes we just react. He showed me the curveball before and kind of locked me up a little bit. He threw it out of the same slot the next time and I was able to put a good swing on it.”
As it turned out, the Cardinals needed both the home run and the six shutout innings.
“Wouldn’t say one is better than the other,” said Wainwright, who also praised a standout play from Aledmys Diaz in the 4th inning.
“Run gets across there, they might have a different first and third there,” said Wainwright.
With runners at first and third with two outs, Diaz moved to his left and sprawled out to snare the grounder from Austin Barnes behind second base. He then was able to flip the ball to the bag for the force out to end the inning.
“Guy’s gonna score for sure, 2-1 with two runners on after that,” continued Wainwright. “You never know where that game could’ve gone. He made a couple of nice plays today, that was probably a game-saving play.”
The game also had a historical note to it, as Elias reports it was the first victory in franchise history with their pitcher accounting for all of their runs batted in via home run.
photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI, Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
