Cardinals' Adam Wainwright maintains mastery of Pirates

Adam Wainwright has two nice streaks going against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Only one really matters.

Wainwright, who turns 40 on Aug. 30, doubled Sunday for the second time in his past two pitching appearances against the Pirates.

Meanwhile, he ran his winning streak against Pittsburgh to nine in a row (seven starts), leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-0 victory at Busch Stadium. He was pulled after eight innings, but he retired the last 11 Pirates he faced, struck out nine, walked no one and allowed only two hits — a bunt single by Gregory Polanco in the second and a double by Kevin Newman in the fifth.

The victory was Wainwright’s 20th in 27 decisions when facing the Pirates, more wins than he has recorded against any other team. He also shut out the Pirates, 4-0, on two hits Aug. 11 at PNC Park. Overall in 23 innings this season, the Pirates have scored one run off Wainwright (12-7). The Pirates haven’t defeated him in St. Louis since 2012 and not at all since 2016 — Opening Day at PNC park.

His pitch of significance Sunday was a curveball that proved to be nearly unhittable.

“I think he has elite feel for it,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “He’s been throwing it for a long time. He’s able to execute it in any count. He’s able to change speeds on it.”

They probably will face Wainwright for a fourth time this weekend at PNC Park. Shelton said it’s time to find a way to beat the 16-year veteran.

“At some point, we have to figure out a way to combat that because he’s gotten us three times now,” he said. “We need to come up with a better gameplan to combat that. I think you have to get over that hurdle. That’s where you have to be mentally tough enough to grind through it, because of the fact that he has the ability to execute pitches.”

After Wainwright threw 106 pitches, the Cardinals (63-60) needed help from relief pitcher Alex Reyes and right fielder Lars Nootbaar to nail down the victory in the ninth. Reyes allowed two-out singles to Ke’Bryan Hayes and Bryan Reynolds before Nootbaar robbed Colin Moran of an extra-base hit, grabbing a line drive for the final out while crashing into the fence. The Pirates didn’t leave the field until Shelton was sure Nootbaar made a clean catch.

“He made an unbelievable play. I thought the ball was over his head,” Shelton said. “On those, you always have to make sure he didn’t catch it, run into the wall, the ball dislodges.”

Pirates starter Steven Brault was impressed with how well Wainwright executed the curveball.

“It’s hard to hit. I struck out,” he said. “It’s one of those things where you watch him pitch and you think, ‘Oh yeah, we’ll get to this guy. We’ll hit him whenever.’ And then it’s the sixth inning, and it’s still zero runs. Because the way he operates is so nonchalant, but he does a very good job of executing his pitches and keeping people off-balance. That’s really all pitching is.”

The defeat prevented the Pirates from sweeping the series after winning the first two games Friday and Saturday. For the 10th time this season, the Pirates (44-80 and 4-16 in August) had a chance to sweep a series, but they are now 0-10 in those attempts. They are the only team in MLB without a series sweep.

Shelton said the idea of completing a sweep is not a mental hurdle for his team.

“Obviously we’ve had trouble finishing one, but I don’t think there’s any mental component to that at all,” he said.

Brault did not pitch poorly, and he did himself a huge favor with an outstanding defensive play in the fourth inning. With Cardinals runners on the corners, Brault saved a run when he fielded a bunt by Wainwright and flipped to catcher Michael Perez while diving forward and rolling over twice.

Steven Brault. Athlete. pic.twitter.com/9mFdqzWV0q

— Pittsburgh Pirates (@Pirates) August 22, 2021

Nootbaar was caught between third and home, and Perez ran him down for the second out of the inning. Brault ended the inning, getting Tommy Edman to pop out to shortstop. Brault was forced into the jam when left fielder Yoshitomo Tsutsugo misplayed Nootbaar’s leadoff fly ball into a double.

“I was kind of surprised that he was going,” Brault said of Nootbaar. “I thought once the bunt was down and I was coming in, I thought he would turn around. So I enjoyed it. I caught the ground pretty hard with my knee, which is why I was oofing afterwards. I left a nice little divet. But it was fun.”

Brault, who walked two batters to match his total in his previous three starts, wasn’t especially pleased with his outing. He struck out only one batter, but his ERA is 1.93 in four starts since coming off the injured list (lat strain) Aug. 4.

“I think that, overall, stuff wasn’t as good, obviously,” he said. “I didn’t get the swings and misses that I like to get. Getting behind in counts a little bit, so they can take more comfortable swings is more the issue there.”

The fourth inning was Brault’s last, but he allowed only one run and five hits — the fifth time in six games a Pirates starter gave up fewer than three runs. He surrendered a run in the first inning on Yadier Molina’s RBI single.

Paul Goldschmidt’s 414-foot home run off Kyle Keller and Harrison Bader’s RBI single against Anthony Banda accounted for the other two Cardinals runs.