Adam Wainwright, St. Louis Cardinals beat Cubs 6-1

Adam Wainwright pitched deep into the game as the St. Louis Cardinals powered past the Chicago Cubs for a 6-1 victory.
Aug 18, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright (50) delivers a pitch during the second inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Image Credit: Reid Compton-USA TODAY Sports
Wainwright pitched 7 innings. He allowed 5 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, and struck out 11 batters. It marked the 6th time in his career that he has struck out 11 batters in a game. It’s the second time this season since striking out 12 on April 18th against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Wainwright leads the Cardinals with 14 wins, 173 strikeouts, and a 2.66 ERA. Amongst league leaders, Wainwright tied for 1st in wins with Jordan Zimmerman. He is ranked 3rd in strikeouts behind Clayton Kershaw (182) and Matt Harvey (187). The staff ace ranks 5th in ERA.

It should be pointed out that because Wainwright is pitching for a small market team in the Midwest, he tends to be ignored by the media in the Cy Young Award discussion. The discussion is mostly between Kershaw and Harvey. Because of his lead in ERA and being so close in strikeouts, Kershaw has to have the edge at the moment. Wainwright isn’t too far behind though.

From the MLB.com game story:

"He also passed Bob Forsch to assume fourth place on the Cardinals’ all-time strikeout list with 1,081. Wainwright will soon leapfrog Chris Carpenter and Dizzy Dean, as well, which will leave him only behind Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, who struck out 3,117 during his 17-year Cardinals career.“Each person I pass just means I’m a little bit older,” Wainwright said. “It’s actually quite an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as those pitchers.”"

Aug 18, 2013; Chicago, IL, USA; St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Jon Jay (19) jumps as he crosses home plate after hitting a three run home run during the seventh inning against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Image Credit: Reid Compton-USA TODAY SportsThe Cardinals put up 3 runs in the 2nd inning. Jon Jay doubled and drove in Yadier Molina to give the Cards a 1-0 lead. Kolten Wong reached second base on a 2-base error when Cubs center fielder Junior Lake badly misplayed the ball. Jay could have scored but he was held at third base. Following an intentional walk to Daniel Descalso and a Wainwright fly out, Matt Carpenter knocked in Jay and Wong on a 2-run single.

The Cardinals would not score again until Jay went yard in the 7th inning. His 3-run homer also scored Allen Craig and Molina.

Amongst batting qualifiers, Molina is sitting at .328, just behind Chris Johnson‘s .335 batting average.

As the Cardinals went towards the later innings of the fan, attention turned to Pittsburgh where there was an extra-inning contest offering free baseball. In the 16th inning, the Diamondbacks scored two runs and gave Cardinals fans a sigh of relief.

With the Pittsburgh Pirates falling in 16 innings to the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Cards are now sitting just one game out of first place.