April 7, 2010: Wainwright Notches His First W In Cincy

    On April 7, 2010, Adam Wainwright locked down his first win of the season with a 6-3 Cardinals victory over the Reds at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati. Wainwright provided the club seven strong innings of work, striking out six, walking just two, and allowing only three hits.  He would go onto win 20 games that season and finish 2nd in the Cy Young vote.

    The Redbirds were able to get on the board first with an RBI single by David Freese in the second inning that plated Colby Rasmus to make it 1-0. One inning later, Ryan Ludwick picked up an RBI single that brought Matt Holliday in to make it 2-0. The Reds had visions of striking back quickly in the bottom of the inning when Brandon Phillips led off with a single. However, Yadier Molina had other thoughts when he gunned down Phillips trying to steal second. Three batters later, Wainwright was headed back to the bench with no damage done.

    It looked like Uncle Charlie was in cruise control. He had thrown just 54 pitches through five innings and looked well on the way to a dominant victory.  However, just as quick as that thought may have crossed the mind the Reds tied things up with a two-run blast in the sixth off the bat of Orlando Cabrera.  All tied up at two, there was still work to do and the Birds went right back to work. 

    When Johnny Cueto's day came to an end in the sixth, Dusty Baker called on bullpen lefty Danny Herrera to face lefty Skip Schumaker, who promptly singled to center to lead off the seventh. Dusty went right back to the pen. Logan Ondrusek took over mound duties and walked the first man he faced. One batter later, Albert Pujols broke the 2-2 deadlock with a single into center scoring Schumaker to make it 3-2. Matt Holliday followed Albert with a two-run double that broke the lead open to 5-2 Cardinals. Before the end of the frame, David Freese knocked in another off of Arthur Rhodes who was the third reliever of the inning that ended with nine Cardinals total stepping up to the dish.

    Up 6-2 and at 95 pitches on the day, Waino handed the ball to Tony LaRussa who then handed it to Kyle McClellan in the eighth. McClellan did surrender a run after giving up a leadoff double, but he struck out two in the inning before handing it over to Dennys Reyes who struck out Joey Votto to send the game to the ninth. Ryan Franklin shut them down in the bottom of the inning and Wainwright had 1 in the W column. A very special season was on tap for the player who wears the number 50 on his back. 

    As we get ready to celebrate Opening Day here in St. Louis, it was important for me to come up with a game that featured three of the men that we have been so lucky to watch and in my humble opinion we are blessed to be able to watch again today: Adam Wainwright, Yadier Molina, and Albert Pujols. It's sort of a cool bonus to see bench coach Skip Schumaker have his moment in this one as well. 

    Soak all of it in today. This may very well be the last time we see this group on the diamond as players. There will be red jackets, retired numbers, statues, and so many countless stories that we tell our kids and grandkids about this group, just like your parent and grandparents have told you the stories of the Cardinals greats that took the diamond during their heyday. It is something special, and we should never forget it. 

Play Ball!

Check out the box score here: STLvsCin 4-7-2010