As the St. Louis Cardinals open up a weekend series in Pittsburgh tonight, Michael Wacha will take the mound looking to end a career-high six game losing streak.
“It just keeps on building on week after week,” said Wacha. “I feel good out there on the mound, feel like I’m making my pitches. I’ve just got to consistently do it down in the zone and continue to get those weak contact type stuff.”
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The mechanical key for Michael is keeping his arm from “dragging” as he described it and he’s been working on getting his arm up in right position.
“I think it’s just feel–getting the elbow up, getting the arm up by the shoulder and in a ready position to throw the ball,” explained Wacha. “I feel like it’s getting to where I want it to be.”
In his career, Wacha is 3-2 with a 4.02 ERA in 9 appearances (8 starts) against the Pirates and is 1-1 with a 6.98 ERA (19.1 IP) in four regular season starts at PNC Park.
Winning in Pittsburgh has been tough of late not just for Wacha, but also the Cardinals. Since April of 2013, St. Louis is 9-22 at PNC Ballpark. However, sleep may be on the Cardinals side as the Pirates arrived back in Pittsburgh at 12:37am local time after playing a makeup game against Colorado on Thursday.
CARDS LINEUP
Matt Carpenter, 2B
Aledmys Diaz, SS
Matt Holliday, LF
Matt Adams, 1B
Jhonny Peralta, 3B
Brandon Moss, RF
Jeremy Hazelbaker, CF
Eric Fryer, C
Michael Wacha, P
photo credit: Bill Greenblatt/UPI
