ST. LOUIS — Adam Wainwright, 39 heading for 40, has pitched seven and then nine innings in consecutive starts. He has allowed only solo homers to respective first basemen Josh Bell of Washington and then Rhys Hoskins of Philadelphia, who hit two of those Monday night at Busch Stadium.
Wainwright allowed no other runs. He has no wins to show for it, either.
Philadelphia righthander Zack Wheeler wasn’t throwing twice as hard as the crafty Wainwright but it might have seemed like it. While Wainwright bamboozled and begrudged the Phillies just six hits, Wheeler permitted only one over eight innings, Paul DeJong’s single in the fifth inning in a 2-1 Phils win.
Hector Neris saved the win for Wheeler, who fanned nine, by retiring Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado with the potential tying run on second in the ninth although Arenado sent center fielder Odubel Herrera to the warning track for his possible game-winning drive.
Wainwright began the evening 10 strikeouts short of 1,000 in his Cardinals career at Busch Stadium III. He fell two short but eight strikeouts and no walks represented a sterling outing in a rare complete-game loss by a pitcher. Wainwright hadn’t lost a nine-inning complete game since his first one, a loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007.
Wainwright opened the game by fanning the first two Phillies, former teammate Brad Miller and Hoskins, and had five whiffs for the first three innings, in which Philadelphia had only a second-inning single by J.T. Realmuto.
But Wheeler was even better for the first three, striking out five and allowing no hits.
Miller opened the fourth with a single to left. Not long after he was talking it over with old friend Goldschmidt at first, base, the Cardinals’ new sheriff in town stepped in. Third baseman Arenado leaped for Hoskins’ liner and easily doubled off Miller, who had broken for second.
But left fielder Miller, belatedly, took a hit away from Goldschmidt in Wheeler’s fourth perfect inning in the fourth. Goldschmidt sent a popup to short left center. Shortstop Didi Gregorius retreated and Miller, who had broken for the ball, stopped when he saw Gregorius coming. But then when Miller ascertained that Gregorius wasn’t going to get there, he started up again and made a sliding catch to end the inning.
Realmuto, seven for 15 in his career against Wainwright after three hits on Monday, became the first runner on either side to reach second base in the fifth inning. After Realmuto’s leadoff hit, he went to second on a one-out grounder by Alec Bohm. But Wainwright retired Odubel Herrera on a fly to right fielder Justin Williams.
There was not a fifth perfect inning by Wheeler, the former New York Mets pitcher. Wheeler retired the first two men, Arenado and Molina but DeJong worked the count full, fouled off a trio of 3-2 pitches and then singled to right center for the Cardinals’ first hit. Tyler O’Neill, however, popped to first baseman Hoskins for the third out.
Wainwright, notching his sixth and seventh strikeouts in the process, finished six scoreless innings by throwing only 66 pitches.
Wheeler issued the first walk of the game by passing No. 8 hitter Williams to begin the Cardinals’ sixth.
Wainwright failed to get a bunt down in fair territory on the first two pitches but then made contact on an 0-2 pitch that bore in on him and he popped it toward the mound. Wheeler let it drop, picked it up to force Williams at second and Wainwright, who had gone to one knee after hitting the ball, was out by lots a first base.
By whatever the method, Wainwright and Wheeler went to the seventh scoreless with the hard-throwing Wheeler, who topped out at 99.5 while pitching to DeJong in the fifth, having thrown the 64 fastest pitches of the night, according to baseball savant.
Wainwright blinked first as Hoskins took a 74.9 mph curveball over the left-field wall for a 409-foot homer to open the Phils’ seventh and provide the first scoring of the night.
The homer was Hoskins’ seventh.
Philadelphia hit several other balls hard in the inning, but to little avail.
Bryce Harper flied to deep center. Gregorius sent two long fouls to right before popping up and Bohm drove a ball to right center where Williams made a spectacular, diving catch to freeze the Phillies’ lead at 1-0.
Wheeler walked Arenado with two out in the seventh but Molina lined to right and Wainwright came out to start the eighth.
The Cardinals’ outfield defense again came into play as left fielder O’Neill raced toward the line to snare Herrera’s slicing liner.
Hoskins’ eighth homer in the ninth seemed to give Wheeler some breathing room but he was lifted after walking pinch hitter Matt Carpenter to start the inning. Tommy Edman's single past second baseman Nick Maton led to the run, driven in by Dylan Carlson's grounder.
