(Busch Stadium) The day after being placed on the 10-day disabled list with mid-back tightness, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright retraced the steps that led to the decision–sharing that he first experienced the issue while warming up before his last start.
“I had my body warm, did my normal stuff inside,” began Wainwright. “I was out in right field stretching at Wrigley and sort of felt like a cramping sensation a little bit. But it wasn’t terrible. It was manageable and I pitched. After I got done pitching, it really locked up on me unfortunately–so I spent most of that night on the floor with my feet up on a table. But it didn’t respond like we wanted to.”
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X-rays showed that everything is in the proper place and Wainwright assured that there is not a herniated disc or other type of issue he’s dealing with.
“There’s some inflammation in there and some stuff that is very short term type stuff,” he said. “Disc, everything’s good. And it’s a like a mid-back thing. When I was younger in my career, I had some lower back stuff that was a lot more debilitating than this. This is all right.”
After Wainwright could not get the necessary extension in his bullpen session yesterday, the decision was made to place him on the 10-day disabled list with hope that he will only miss one start.
For tonight, Mike Mayers has been recalled from Memphis to provide depth in the bullpen. Luke Weaver, who is expected to start in Wainwright’s spot tomorrow, was also in the Cardinals clubhouse this afternoon–although his recall has not officially been transacted.
“It’s not the time I want a breather for sure,” said Wainwright. “What are we, four games back right now? And we’re right in the thick of things, and we’re about to go to Milwaukee, and we’re playing two very tough teams here at home–I definitely want to be out there. But everybody seemed to feel like that this is something you can take a few days and be great and be better for the rest of the season or you can potentially end up missing two or three starts for pushing it too hard. These guys are pretty smart, it’s hard to argue with them sometimes.”
It was also hard for Wainwright to argue when Mike Matheny approached him on the mound during his last start.
“Every fiber in my body is telling me I can get this guy out right now,” began Wainwright on the conversation between the two. “I mean, got him out the other times in the game–he got one blooper to right off me but I’m confident I can get him out. Kris Bryant’s a great player, but I’m confident I can get him out. But–and I’ve never admitted this on the mound before, which I think was a trigger to him to get me the heck out of there, I said but I don’t feel very good. My body doesn’t feel very good right now. I’m battling through some things right now. I’m going to get him out, but just know that I don’t feel very good. And he was like, you’re done.”
“That makes it easy,” agreed Matheny. “A lot of times when you see me go out there, I’m in between. Not that I’ve got some unique ability to look into somebody’s eyes and see, but sometimes just give them the opportunity to show you and to tell you. I was in between. A big part of me wanted to see Adam Wainwright stay out there. From what I was seeing, something didn’t look quite right. And I wasn’t even privy to the fact–because he kept it pretty close to the vest before the game that he was hurting a little bit.
“Then when I got out there and all through the game, he’s the same thing. He’s just a warrior. He’s just not going to let himself get into ‘okay, I got this going on’. He doesn’t. He’s ‘I’m going to make something happen.’ At that particular time, I could see that something wasn’t quite right. At that point, it makes it easy. Up until that point, I was going to need him to talk me into him staying–and he’s really good at. He’s real convincing that he’s the right guy at any particular time. But, unfortunately it didn’t work because it was the right thing for him to do. When he knows that he’s compromised, we need help.”
“The thing that bothered me so much about it was that if I had looked him right in the face and said, which I always do, and said like ‘Dude, I got this. Go back to the dugout’ then I’m in that game. In my mind, I didn’t give myself a chance to–and actually I did. I mean…if it’s ever a question in my mind, which there’s never been ever a question in my mind if I can get him out, than I won’t pitch. But I knew I was going to get him out, but I also knew that you know what, I might be screwing this up right now by continuing to try and go out there and pitch. I made the decision kind of on the spot that I needed to fully disclose what was going on and he did what he had to do.”
Assured by Matheny that he 1000% made the right decision, Wainwright is still wrestling between the bigger picture of being good the rest of the season and the haunting idea that one game could again be the difference for a playoff appearance this year.
“If we ended up in the situation where we lose by one game again, I’m just going to be sick about it,” said Wainwright. “Honestly, I think this was the smart–honestly, there’s no other way for me to put it. I think this was the smart play, unfortunately.”
photo credit: Brad Penner, Scott Kane-USA TODAY Sports
