Wainwright pitches a gem for Cardinals

Adam Wainwright pitched a complete game yesterday afternoon as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Oakland Athletics with a 7-1 victory.
June 29, 2013; Oakland, CA, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) delivers a pitch against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning at O.co Coliseum. Image Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The Cardinals staff ace allowed 5 hits, 1 run, 2 walks and struck out 8 batters. He only needed 112 pitches to take care of the 33 batters that he faced. The veteran now has a 2.22 ERA on the season.

The 2 runs that the Cardinals scored in the 5th inning was all that needed with Wainwright’s gem. In the 5th inning, Matt Adams scored when Daniel Descalso hit a sacrifce fly to center. David Freese would go on to score when Matt Carpenter hit a single to left field.

In the 6th inning, Matt Holliday singled and drove in Carlos Beltran. Matt Adams, the next batter to step into the batter’s box, then launched a bases-clearing 3-run home run to right field. He drove in Holliday and Allen Craig.

In the 8th inning, Adams would launch his second home run of the day. This time around, it was a solo shot that also went to right field.

Wainwright’s start more than made up for Friday night’s disaster of an outing by Shelby Miller. The rookie was able to get out of the first inning just fine on Friday. But the second inning was where all chaos broke loose. After facing 9 batters in the second inning, Miller had allowed 5 runs to score. The 1 2/3 innings was the shortest outing of his career but Miller is expected to take the mound on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.