ST. LOUIS _ Before the Cardinals threw their guiding pitcher a birthday bash with doubles galore and a Dexter Fowler homer, manager Mike Shildt admitted that he had been a little busy recently and had not picked up a gift for Adam Wainwright.
It only took him seven, eight innings to come up with one.
With a nod and nary a word from his manager and a hook he's had since his youth, Wainwright pitched a complete game on his 39th birthday, all while throwing to Yadier Molina as the catcher played his 2,000th game for the Cardinals. Dexter Fowler had a home run and three RBIs to first tie the game and then push the Cardinals further ahead for a 7-2 victory Sunday at Busch Stadium.
With a bullpen stretched by having to cover seven innings each in the previous two games and tattered by a schedule that hasn't had an off day in more than two weeks, Wainwright had already promised a gift to his manager on the birthday.
"I got you," Wainwright said he texted his manager.
That meant he was going to cover as many innings, throw as many pitches, and go as deep as possible to save the relievers. He told John Gant and a few other relievers that they could take the day off.
He had them.
This convergence of Wainwright's birthday and Molina's milestone couldn't have come at a better time for the Cardinals, who ended a four-game losing streak and salvaged their 12-game, 11-day home stand with a 6-6 record. Wainwright didn't singlehandedly halt the spiral, but he did give the Cardinals completely what they needed.
It was his first complete game since 2016.
"To be honest I couldn't sleep last night thinking about it," Molina said. "Waino is 39 but he looks lot younger than that. He's got more baseball in him."
Before Wainwright came to speak to the media, he had to step aside for a moment.
"I had to take a little cry break," he said of his emotions.
Wainwright and Molina were prepared with masks to put on as they celebrated the complete game on the field after the final out.
"Nothing was going to stop me from hugging Yadier Molina right there," the pitcher said.
Cleveland waited to leave the field and saluted Wainwright.
To make it possible, Wainwright retired the final 11 batters he faced, and he did so with increasing efficiency in the later innings. Wainwright's 100th pitch was his final pitch of the seventh inning. He elevated a 90-mph fastball for a strikeout. He then needed only three pitches to get the first two outs of the eighth inning, and not even a seven-pitch strikeout to end that inning could keep him from the ninth.
Wainwright retired Cleveland in order on three fly balls, including an infield pop, to complete his first complete game since July 2016.
Wainwright struck out nine, six of them looking.
After the game, as the celebration unwound and headed toward the Cardinals' clubhouse, Molina did sneak up on Wainwright and douse him with a bucket of water.
"Hard to see it coming," Wainwright explained, "when your eyes are full of tears."
