Adam Wainwright pitches shutout, delivers hits as Cardinals hand Pirates 7th straight loss

To say Adam Wainwright was ruthless in his efficiency against the Pittsburgh Pirates isn’t solely a statement about the pitching of the St. Louis Cardinals starter.

Wainwright got as many hits as he allowed.

Not only did the 39-year-old right-hander toss a two-hit shutout, he helped his cause at the plate by going 2 for 4 with an RBI single as the Cardinals beat the Pirates, 4-0, Wednesday night before 8,548 at PNC Park.

According to Stats by STATS, since pitches were first tracked in 1988, Wainwright became the only major league pitcher to throw a shutout on fewer than 90 pitches while also having two hits and an RBI.

It was the seventh consecutive loss for the Pirates (41-73), who have three hits in two games against the Cardinals (57-56) in this homestand and will try to avoid another sweep when they conclude the three-game series at 12:35 p.m. Thursday.

Duiring a steady rain with flashes of lightning, the Cardinals kept their bullpen covered by tarp, yet there never was any intention of removing Wainwright (11-6), who threw strikes on 58 of 88 pitches, recorded seven strikeouts and retired the final 13 batters he faced.

“He really executed well,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s been throwing a good curveball for a long time, and today we saw him execute it at 70 mph and at 78 mph. And then he was able to run the two-seamer both sides of the plate. He was in complete control the whole game. …I don’t think we swung at ton of bad pitches. We just had a ton of soft contact. That’s a credit to him and how he executed.”

It was his second dominant start against the Pirates this season. Wainwright tossed a one-hitter over six innings while striking out eight in a 3-1 win June 26 at Busch Stadium. He improved his career record against the Pirates to 19-7, with nine wins coming at PNC Park.

First baseman Colin Moran was the only Pirates player to get a hit off Wainwright, with singles to lead off the second and fifth innings. Both led to forceouts at second base, the first when Rodolfo Castro grounded into a 6-4-3 double play and the second coming when Gregory Polanco grounded to short for a fielder’s choice.

After that, Wainwright didn’t allow another batter to reach base.

“I thought we put some good at-bats together,” Pirates left fielder Anthony Alford said. “I just thought he threw really good pitches. He was missing barrels. He was making pitches and making us put the ball in play and getting outs. Kept his pitch count down. I just thought he did a really good job pitching.”

Pirates starter Wil Crowe (3-7) cruised through the first three innings, relying heavily on his sinker. In the fourth, he gave up a single to Paul Goldschmidt and walked Nolan Arenado before striking out Tyler O’Neill. Crowe wasn’t out of trouble just yet.

Yadier Molina singled to left field to score Goldschmidt for a 1-0 lead, but third basman Ke’Bryan Hayes cut off Anthony Alford’s throw and caught Arenado in a rundown between second and third for the final out.

Crowe got into another jam in the fifth, which started with Alford making a diving catch in left to rob Harrison Bader of an extra-base hit. Paul DeJong singled, Wainwright hit a two-out ground rule double that bounced over the left-field fence and Dylan Carlson drew a full-count walk to load the bases.

“It looked like he kind of ran out of gas in the fifth,” Shelton said. “He executed early on and then in the fifth, he started to drift in the middle of the plate.”

The Pirates went to the bullpen, and Nick Mears got Goldschmidt to ground out to second to escape the jam. Cody Ponce, however, wasn’t as effective in the sixth.

DeJong hit a two-run double to the right-center gap to score Arenado and Molina for a 3-0 lead. The Pirates intentionally walked Tommy Edman to get to Wainwright, who smacked a single through the middle to score DeJong as he beat Bryan Reynolds’ throw from center for a 4-0 lead.

Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader helped Wainwright’s cause at the end, making a diving catch of a Wilmer Difo line drive to end the eighth, a leaping grab in left-center of a Michael Perez deep fly to start the ninth and another diving grab of a Kevin Newman bloop.

When Wainwright got Hoy Park to ground out for the final out, he finished his 27th career complete game. All Crowe could do was credit his counterpart for a virtuoso pitching performance.

“Good for him. He had it all going, and I thought we even put some good swings on some good pitches. The ball didn’t fall our way tonight, but sometimes you tip the cap,” Crowe said. “I think all of our hitters would say that, even on his misses, they were on the corners. So he was making good pitches at all times. You tip your cap and you wake up tomorrow and you fight back and try to get a game tomorrow.”