ST.
LOUIS
- Adam Wainwright made a guarantee Saturday evening. Unfortunately for him and the
Cardinals, it may be too late.
Wainwright vowed his personal losing
streak would end after losing a fourth straight start in the Cardinals’ 6-1 loss
to the Cincinnati Reds at Busch Stadium. But it may not matter after Saturday’s
loss dropped the Cardinals eight games behind the Reds in the National League
Central Division.
A win would have moved the Cardinals to within six
games of the Reds and put them in position to sweep the series Sunday afternoon
and inch a game closer in the division. But Aaron Miles’ error allowed three
unearned runs in the first inning and Wainwright allowed the first career home
run to Reds pitcher Travis Wood as the Reds may have delivered the final blow in
the Cardinals’ pursuit of another division championship.
“I don’t like
losing one game much less four in a row,” Wainwright said. “I won’t lose
again.”
The Cardinals are somehow 1-7 in the last eight games started by
Wainwright and Chris Carpenter. Wainwright lost his fourth-straight start for
the first time in his career. He entered with a 5.21 ERA in his last three
starts and fell in a hole early when a potential double-play ball off the bat of
Joey Votto was booted by Aaron Miles at second base.
Instead of ending
the inning, the Reds’ had runners at second and third with one out. Scott Rolen
walked before catcher Ramon Hernandez grounded out to short to put the Reds in
front. The big blow came off the bat of Johnny Gomes, who followed with a
two-out, two-run double to left to make it 3-0 before the Cardinals even had a
chance to bat.
“Aaron Miles is a great defensive player,” Wainwright
said. “He has been and will be in the future. It just came up on him, the ball
took a funny hop or something, but I should have got out of that inning with one
run. I made a good pitch on Hernandez and the scored a run and that should have
been the end of it. I just didn’t make a pitch to Gomes.
“It’s been very
frustrating. Not in the last few years have I felt this frustrated since my
first year. I feel like I’m doing the things I need to do to be prepared
for each start. I’m just not making pitches when I need to. That’s really
what it comes down to.”
The Cardinals again went silent at the plate
after scoring early in the game. An RBI single by Matt Holliday in the bottom of
the first accounted for their only run of the game.
The final nail in
the Cardinals coffin may have come when Reds’ rookie left-hander Travis Wood
launched a solo home run off Wainwright into the seats in left to make it 5-1 in
the fourth. Wood, who allowed one run in seven innings, became the first Reds
rookie pitcher to hit a home run since Jeff Russell in 1983.
“Just a lack
of execution on my part,” Wainwright said. “You’re never expecting a pitcher -
that’s the first time I’ve ever given up a home run to the pitcher. I’m never
expecting that. If I make my pitch down down and away like I’m trying to, he
doesn’t hit it out. Ridiculous. Enough is enough.”
But trailing by eight
games with just 29 left to play, Wainwright and the Cardinals appear to be
running out of time, regardless of whether Wainwright loses again or
not.
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