Adam Wainwright is proving the St. Louis Cardinals most negative fans wrong
As improbable as it seemed he’d make it to the finish line, I was really rooting for Adam Wainwright to get the job done as he pitched into the six inning Saturday, nursing a no-hitter.
It was shaping up to be one of the great moments and a truly great feel good story in recent Cardinals history.
But it wasn’t to be. Clinging to a one-run lead — a run that he had to drive in himself — Wainwright gave up a solo homer to lose the no-no and the chance to win the game on the same swing of the bat.
Poof.
What’s happened with the former St. Louis Cardinals ace is a sad reality in sports: Even the best athletes someday will get old. And when they do, there will be no shortage of people to disrespect everything they’ve accomplished up to that point in their career, heckling their former heroes on social media and begging them to have some pride and just quit. It would have been incredibly redeeming for Wainwright, who has pitched well in this improbable additional season after his record Redbirds contract ran out at the end of the 2018 campaign.
The fact of the matter is that when Wainwright was healthy, he was the definition of an elite talent. I can’t believe he didn’t walk away with at least one Cy Young Award in his heyday, finishing in the top three for the award four times over a five-season span from 2010-14. That’s not counting the 2011 campaign that he missed because of Tommy John surgery, the first time fair weather fans claimed Wainwright’s career was toast.
He came back in 2012 and won 13 games with a 3.94 earned run average as he worked to regain his control and get his feet back beneath him. Then he won 19 games the next year, shaving a point off his ERA in the process. In 2013 I believe he was the best pitcher in baseball with a 20-9 record and a 2.38 ERA. He led the majors with 241 2/3 innings pitched and struck out 219 while walking 35 of the league-leading 956 hitters he faced.
But the numbers don’t tell the story of who Adam Wainwright is. it’s his bulldog character that impresses me. Wainwright is like the lead character in the Terminator movies in that he takes an incredible physical beating but keeps on coming. There is no quit in the guy. If he’s got it in the tank, his teammates and fans are going to get it. Every last drop.
Even the past few years as Wainwright has struggled to stay healthy and battled with diminished velocity and a less reliable curveball — probably thanks to the achilles injury he suffered — he’s still helped his team. He won 25 games in 2016 and 2017 despite an ERA nearly twice what it was in his prime. Stats guys will tell you wins don’t mean anything. But I don’t completely buy that. Wins aren’t completely in a pitcher’s control. But a hurler who finds a way to stay in games and who keeps battling wins more games than a pitcher with less fortitude.
I feel terrible for Wainwright that the year he had to have his elbow rebuilt just happened to be the 2011 championship season. He deserved to go 1-2 with his pal Chris Carpenter at the top of the St. Louis rotation. But I suppose, if he’d been healthy, that magical comeback the Cardinals made that year wouldn’t have seemed quite so special because the Redbirds would have won their division by 8-10 games as opposed to furiously elbowing their way into the playoffs at the very end had their co-ace been healthy all year.
Besides, although he was miscast as a closer out of necessity, the future starter will end his career knowing he played a major role in securing a ring for his team in 2006. Wainwright was magical closing out games. While he got the rare experience of being the guy who got mobbed on the mound in a World Series clincher, he might be even better remembered for putting St. Louis in the Fall Classic in the first place with his stunning strikeout of Carlos Beltran with the bases loaded and two out in the ninth inning of the National League Championship Series.
A no-hitter or perfect game would be the perfect cherry on top of a wonderful career. But it also would have been a poignant reminder to all the people who have written him off over the past few years that Uncle Charlie is a unique talent and we’re all lucky that we got to watch him wear the birds on the bat. I think a lot of people came into this season skeptical that Wainwright was going to be able to contribute to this club. But, three starts in, he has allowed only 12 hits in 16 innings, striking out 16 and walking six. Take away one weak start and he’s been pretty darn sharp. I’d love it if he could get one more good shot at a no-hitter. But I’ll take one more World Series ring for the big guy instead.
This story was originally published April 15, 2019 at 9:23 AM.