Adam Wainwright

Last night, I got to witness a masterful pitching performance first hand.  Actually, I saw two of them. Wandy Rodriguez was solid for the Astros, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk while fanning six over seven innings. His bullpen even backed him up with a perfect inning with one strikeout from reliever Latroy Hawkins. Adam Wainwrright was just better. He allowed the same three hits that Rodriguez did, but without walking anyone while shutting Houston out over eight innings. He also struck out five, none of which was bigger than pinch-hitter Jason Michaels' knees with a breaking ball in the eighth inning with the tying run at third base. Wainwright and Molina both showed a lot of emotion after that K. They knew it was a huge spot, especially with how cold the Cards' offense has been lately. I quipped to Meghan (we'll call her a cousin of no blood relation to keep things simple) after scoring in the first inning that with the way Wainwright's been pitching, we may not need much more than that. Well, I wasn't serious, but number 50 sure as hell was. The game ended in two hours and ten minutes. One last fact that will display how dominating both pitchings staffs were is that at no point during last night's game was there more than one base runner aboard. Both teams were limited to just one runner advancing to third base. The Cards scored theirs, the Astros did not, and it was the difference in the game. It isn't likely to get much easier for the birds' bats on Wednesday when they go against Roy Oswalt, who's coming off a performance of eight shutout innings.

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Again, heading into 2008, the starting pitching is spotty. Adam Wainwright is the only top-notch starter available. Mark Mulder may come back, but Chris Carpenter is not available this season. It looks like again another year for a hopefully solid bullpen.

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