If you thought things couldn’t get worse for the already reeling St. Louis Cardinals, they already did.
Already in the National League Central cellar and over a dozen games under. 500, the Cardinals turned to the ever-reliable Adam Wainwright to stop the bleeding. The 41-year-old three-time MLB All-Star debuted on Saturday and could not stop the team’s losing ways.
Wainwright, who gave up four runs on eight hits in five innings of work, earned the no-decision as the Cardinals lost their eighth straight game. He was cruising until the fifth inning when the Tigers tagged him for three runs. Detroit tied the game at three apiece after St. Louis jumped out to an early 3-0 lead.
“I really can’t understand what happened in that fifth inning,” Wainwright said. “I mean, I feel like I pitched a scoreless game, and I gave up four runs, and I don’t know why.”
Wainwright stopped short of calling out anyone but said that there very easily could’ve been two outs in the inning with nobody on base. Out of the three runs that Wainwright allowed in the fifth inning, he said two of them were on bloop singles, and another one was on a pop-up.
After giving up back-to-back hits to begin the sixth, the Cardinals pulled Wainwright. Despite not being able to record an out in the inning, Wainwright left Saturday’s contest with a chance to win the game.
And yet, he was not pleased with his performance.
“You know, honestly I don’t know what I could have done differently. … I was convinced that today was going to be the end of the streak and I’m just very disappointed it wasn’t,” Wainwright said via The Athletic’s Katie Woo, who pointed out that the Cardinals pitcher was visibly frustrated during his post-game press conference.
Unfortunately, the Cardinals bullpen would cough up the game in extra innings, in a game that Wainwright said the team “should’ve won.”
While Wainwright told reporters not to “put him in the grave just yet,” those in the MLB world are seemingly ready to eulogize the Cardinals’ season through just 34 games. The 41-year-old has already announced his plans to retire after the 2023 season.
[Katie Woo on Twitter, St. Louis Post-Dispatch]
