Michael Wacha may be fourth in the Cardinals' rotation, but he's looked more like an ace so far this season.
Just ask two of the National League's best pitchers. Wacha has outdueled Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto twice, and Thursday afternoon he toppled Max Scherzer and the Nationals in a 4-1 win.
"I think he's doing a nice job of not getting distracted by who he's facing, whether it's the opposing pitcher or the opposing lineup and just making good pitches and figuring out ways to keep improving his game," manager Mike Matheny told reporters during the Cardinals Live postgame show on FOX Sports Midwest. "I saw some really good curveballs today."
A typically impressive changeup and good location on his fastball led to arguably his best start yet as he went seven innings for the second straight outing. Wacha gave up only five hits in each of his first three starts and he doubled his strikeout total with six against a dangerous Nationals lineup.
"He was awesome," first baseman Matt Adams told reporters. "After the first inning, he kept the ball down in the zone and kept them off-balance and threw a lot of strikes."
The Reds' only runs against Wacha came on a pair of solo home runs, and he was inches away from giving up another one to Danny Espinosa to lead off the fifth on Thursday. Instead, it went off the wall for a double and, even though Espinosa eventually came around to score on a Denard Span single two batters later, Wacha recovered to keep the game tied at one.
St. Louis needed the young right-hander's great pitching against both Cueto, who finished second in the NL Cy Young voting a year ago, and Scherzer, who won the AL's award in 2013. It battled to score six runs in 14 innings against Cueto, and Scherzer allowed only two in seven innings of work.
Perhaps the Cardinals will find it easier to provide more run support when they face Philadelphia's fifth starter Dustin McGowan in Wacha's next start Tuesday at Busch Stadium. He's certainly deserves it.
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Watch the Cardinals Live pregame and postgame shows before and after every St. Louis Cardinals game on FOX Sports Midwest.
• Another series win. After splitting a weather-shortened two-game set with the Cubs to open the season, the Cardinals have won four straight three-game series. They lead the NL Central by 2 1/2 games heading into a weekend series at last-place Milwaukee.
"It doesn't matter, early or late, every win, especially against a very good team and I thought we played well even the one that we lost," Matheny said. "When we got walked off, the guys kept showing fight."
• Carpenter, again. This time, the Cardinals' leadoff hitter needed just one pitch to put his mark on another win.
A day after hitting his second leadoff home run in three games, Matt Carpenter led off the game with his eighth double of the year on a drive to right-center. He eventually scored when Scherzer's one-out changeup got past catcher Wilson Ramos.
Carpenter, who leads the team with a .386 average and 13 runs, singled in his next at-bat.
• Cruz hits. Catcher Tony Cruz finally made his 2015 debut, with Yadier Molina getting a day off after 13 consecutive starts. Cruz looked solid behind the plate and even picked up his first hit -- a single off of Scherzer in the seventh inning.
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• Peralta skid. Recent hitting woes continued with an 0-for-3 day for Jhonny Peralta. The shortstop has just two hits in 19 at-bats since he opened the season batting .361 during a nine-game hit streak.
• No Harris debut. Navy grad Mitch Harris will have to wait a little longer to begin the next chapter of his incredible story, which began when the Cardinals drafted him nearly seven years ago.
Harris spent five years as a weapons officer in the Persian Gulf, Russia and South America before impressing enough in the minors and during this year's spring training to earn a call-up during Peter Bourjos' three-day paternity leave. After watching his first two games, Harris got up in the bullpen prior to the ninth inning, but a competitive series kept him from finally making his major league debut in the nation's capital.
"We score a run (in the ninth), he's going in," Matheny said. "Then if we get into a save situation, two guys on base, at that point if there's only one run, then we'd bring Trevor (Rosenthal) in behind him."
• Nationals defense. Washington let veteran pinch hitter Mark Reynolds circle the bases on an ugly play in the eighth inning.
Pitcher Aaron Barrett did well to back up a relay throw home way over the head of Ramos, allowing Matt Holliday to score easily from first on Reynolds' two-out double. But Barrett's awful throw to second went into center field, allowing Reynolds to complete the Little League home run.
You can follow Luke Thompson on Twitter at @FS_LukeT or email him at lukegthompson87@gmail.com.
