Adding a positive
chapter to his grueling recovery from Tommy John surgery, Wainwright
tossed his first shutout since Aug. 6, 2010, to lead the Cardinals to a
4-0 win over the Padres at Busch Stadium.
Wainwright has 69 big league wins. None felt like this one.
"That
might be the best feeling I've ever had pitching," Wainwright said.
"I've done some things that were pretty fun but I can't ever remember
feeling that emotional after a game.
"Today was pretty special."
It's
been a long road back for Wainwright, who missed the entire 2011 season
while rehabbing from the elbow surgery. And the hours of tedious
range-of-motion stretches and rubber ball throws finally proved to be
worth it.
Entering the game with an unusual 2-5 record and a
5.77 ERA, Wainwright established early on that this wasn't the pitcher
who had allowed at least five runs in five of his eight starts. This was
the old Wainwright, the one who won 20 games in 2010 and figured to be a
Cy Young contender last year before going down.
Wainwright
allowed just four hits and had a season-high nine strikeouts, cruising
to the third shutout and ninth complete game of his career.
"That
was fun to watch today," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said. "He was
locked in. He just had that look. We saw him get closer and closer and
it’s nice to have that kind of reward and that kind of outing from start
to finish. That's a big one he's going to build on.
"You need
to have that bone thrown to you. He's had some good outings with not a
lot of offensive production, he's had a couple rough ones where the
wheels seemed to fall off, but you could tell that he was getting
close."
After cruising through spring training while showing few
effects of the year-long absence, Wainwright was hit with reality from
his first start of the season. He allowed three earned runs in Milwaukee
before things unraveled in his second start in the Cardinals’ home
opener.
Wainwright tied a career high by allowing eight earned
runs in three innings in a loss to the Chicago Cubs on April 13. He
allowed at least four earned runs in three of his next five starts as he
struggled to find any consistency.
But that changed Tuesday.
Following an encouraging side session over the weekend in Los Angeles,
Wainwright took a different delivery, with a lower arm angle, to the
mound against the Padres. He had two strikeouts in the opening inning
and retired the first seven he faced, establishing that it would be a
different type of outing.
"It was mind-set, just attacking
hitters and making them get in my counts," Wainwright said. "Too many
times this year I've fallen behind in the count or when I did get ahead,
I let them back into the count. Today I wanted to make good, quality
pitches right from the start and make them put it play.
"My last
bullpen session I really felt my arm go back into the right slot the
first time. I really just tried to feel that between innings tonight. I
felt it the whole game."
Wainwright hadn't gone past the seventh
inning in any of his previous eight starts. But he cruised through the
seventh and into the eighth with a low pitch count Tuesday, strutting
around the mound with his old, dominating presence.
And the Cardinals weren't the only ones who noticed.
"That
was the Adam Wainwright I remember before he got hurt," Padres catcher
John Baker said. "He was at the top of his game. He's one of the top
pitchers in baseball and I think he looked like that tonight for the
first time this year."
It's certainly not time to give
Wainwright the Cy Young Award. But with what he went through the past 14
months to reach this point, the right-hander made sure to enjoy the
moment.
"I just let out a girly yell," Wainwright said. "It was
just a huge sense of relief, a huge sense of feeling blessed. I've
worked very hard to get back to where I am. It's some acknowledgement of
the hard work.
"I think all of the emotion came from just
knowing it's been over a year since I've done that, since I've really
felt locked in on the mound like that. Mentally tonight, I was so much
better than I have been."
Asked if at any point during his rehab
he thought a night like Tuesday might never come, Wainwright said, "No,
I tried not to think about it. I knew I could do it. I knew I would do
it.
"This year started kind of rough for me but I knew that if I
kept grinding, I knew it would come back. Now I've kind of set the bar
so I want to make sure I'm locked in like that every game and focused
like that every game and put the emphasis on every throw between starts
like I did this last time. I'll try to keep it right there."
Wainwright’s next start is Sunday against Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies.
