Normally, when Adam Wainwright and Yadier Molina hook up as a battery, some sort of record is broken or, at least being challenged. On Thursday night at Busch Stadium, the pair made their 313th start together, three games behind the second-place Milwaukee Braves duo of Warren Spahn and Del Crandall.
Molina put his name in the 2022 books by drawing his first two walks of the season after 92 at-bats without one. But Wainwright, falling to the Milwaukee Brewers 4-3, reached a plateau that he hadn’t reached in his previous 50 starts — and didn’t want to reach.
The 40-year-old, seeking his fourth consecutive win, allowed double-figure hits (10) for the first time since his final start of the 2019 season when he surrendered 12 hits to the Chicago Cubs. Only three of the four runs Wainwright allowed were earned as shortstop Edmundo Sosa had an erratic night in the field but Wainwright’s record dropped to 5-4 as he has had a decision in all nine of his starts.
His strike-ball ratio was good, 70-30. The issue was that he averaged precisely 20 pitches an inning as he endured only five.
The Brewers, who increased their National League Central Division lead to 4½ games over the Cardinals, jumped Wainwright for two runs in the first, featuring a home run by Luis Urias. That came with one out and then, with two out, the Brewers strung together three singles.
The second of those, Rowdy Tellez’s looper to short left, probably could have been caught but novice left fielder Juan Yepez pulled up when Sosa raced deep into the outfield and appeared to startle Yepez. The ball dropped between them.
But the Cardinals quickly rebounded to tie the score.
Tommy Edman doubled to left center off left-hander Eric Lauer and, after Paul Goldschmidt walked, Edman moved up on Nolan Arenado’s fly to right. Edman scored as Albert Pujols lashed his 3,317th hit, two shy of ninth-place Paul Molitor, a former Brewers star, on the all-time list.
The big part of this play was that Goldschmidt, not fearing the arm of left fielder Christian Yelich, never hesitated in going to third and Yelich instead threw to second. From third, Goldschmidt scored easily on Yepez’s sacrifice fly.
Goldschmidt reached base for the 31st consecutive game, longest streak in the big leagues, with his walk.
After Jace Peterson’s one-out double in the Milwaukee second, Sosa again sprinted into medium left for Kolten Wong’s fly ball, which would have gone directly to Yepez. Sosa caught this one.
But then Sosa moved in front of third baseman Arenado to field Luis Urias’ grounder and, on the run, threw across his body, and wide of first. Goldschmidt couldn’t help him and Urias was safe on the error.
Yelich took advantage with a run-scoring single to right, sending Wainwright’s pitch count careening past 50 for two innings.
Having extended his on-base streak, Goldschmidt blooped a two-out single into center in the second, hiking his hitting streak to 17 games. That hit chased to third Edman, who also had singled with two out. Arenado walked, filling the bases and the Busch Stadium stands with anticipation. Pujols was next. But he grounded into a forceout and it remained 3-2.
Counting that out, Lauer set down nine hitters in succession before walking Pujols with two out in the fifth.
Wainwright pitched around a two-out double by Omar Narvaez in the third. But he missed on a close 3-2 pitch to Yelich in the fourth, moving Wong to second with two outs. Andrew McCutchen moved Wong home with a single to left center.
The Cardinals didn’t have a hit after Goldschmidt’s single in the second until Goldschmidt homered off a 95 mph Trevor Gott four-seamer in the seventh. The clout, Goldschmidt’s eighth homer of the season, was a parabolic one, with a launch degree of 40 degrees. The score was 4-3.
After Wainwright left, rookie Andre Pallante reeled off three scoreless innings, giving up two hits and a walk. Giovanny Gallegos had a 1-2-3 ninth.
But, ultimately, it was Josh Hader time. And the Brewers’ record-setting closer posted his 16th successive save from the start of the season and 37th consecutive scoreless outing over two seasons.
Edman singled for his third hit of the night and only the third all season off Hader in 16 games. After Goldschmidt fanned, Arenado walked on a full-count pitch. But Pujols fouled out and Yepez popped up.
