ST. LOUIS – Adam Wainwright sat in the dugout Wednesday night and watched helplessly as the San Francisco Giants scored 15 runs and handed the Cardinals one of their worst shutout losses in franchise history.
Thursday afternoon, he made sure it didn't happen again.
Wainwright continued his second half resurgence, allowing just one run in seven strong innings to help the Cardinals bounce back with a 3-1 win at Busch Stadium.
"He did a great job," said manager Mike Matheny. "If you are fortunate enough to have one of those stoppers on your staff that can take a bad run or something heading in the wrong direction and turn it around with a solid start, we're fortunate enough to have that. Waino certainly is that guy right now.
"We have a couple guys that can do that but Adam appears to be taking control and giving us a great opportunity to right the ship and today was a great example of that."
The win gave the Cardinals a four-game series split with the Giants and finished off an impressive 5-2 home stand before they head to Philadelphia for a weekend set. It also moved the Cardinals back to 10 games over the .500 mark at 61-51 and pulled them within 5.5 games of the division leading Reds, who were set to play the Cubs later Thursday night.
And Wainwright was the one who made it happen. Carlos Beltran's two-run homer in the bottom of the first inning was all the right-hander needed, allowing just five hits and one run while striking out seven.
The Giants only real threat came in the fifth, when they loaded the bases with one out but settled for one run on a sacrifice fly thanks to a nice sliding catch by center fielder Jon Jay.
"We needed that win today," Wainwright said. "Going up against a very tough pitcher in (Madison) Bumgarner and a tough team in the Giants, we needed to earn that split right there. It was a tough series."
Asked about taking on the challenge of helping the Cardinals put their 15-0 loss from the night before behind them, Wainwright said, "I embrace it, yeah, that's kind of what I live for. If there's a challenge out there, not that you need more motivation, but it allows you to focus a little bit more and focus in on exactly what your task is."
Wainwright suffered some growing pains early in the season, his first since missing all of 2011 due to Tommy John surgery. He went 4-6 with a 4.98 ERA in his first 11 starts and had an uncharacteristically high 4.78 ERA when the calendar turned to July.
But as the weather started to heat up, so has the former 20-game winner. Wainwright entered Thursday's start with a 2.38 ERA in his previous six outings dating back to July 4 and only lowered it thanks to yet another dominating performance.
Thursday was his fifth consecutive start of allowing two earned runs or less and he's 3-1 with a 1.74 ERA during that span. For the season, Wainwright improved to 10-10 while lowering his ERA to 3.90.
"He certainly has that rhythm going like he did a while back where he gets the ball and knows he's going to execute the pitch," Matheny said. "Right now we're seeing his best, his last two starts have been his best execution of his fastball without question. That just makes his breaking ball that much better.
"He's able to really pitch with a tempo and control the rhythm of the game. It's been fun to watch these last two starts because that's what he looks like when he's really on top of his game. It's great to see that comeback."
The numbers aren't typical Adam Wainwright numbers just yet. But as they continue to get closer and closer, the right-hander says he feels just like he did during his 20-win season in 2010.
"I feel the same," Wainwright said. "I feel very confident on the mound. I feel like I'm repeating my delivery and making pitches like I used to, it just took me a while to get back there.
"I was watching my first start against the Giants in San Francisco from earlier this year and I was just brutal. I knew I was bad, I didn't know I was that bad, but I've come a long way since then. I'm a completely different pitcher from the beginning of the season."
And the Cardinals hope to see plenty more of the same as their playoff push continues down the stretch.
