Adam Wainwright’s 199th win slips away from Cardinals bullpen, but late rally means victory

It was so much more.

In the fifth inning Monday night at Chase Field, veteran starter Adam Wainwright had eclipsed his advertised pitch limit and kept going, past 65, past 70, and eventually past 75 pitches, all in an attempt to qualify for the win. The Cardinals had the lead. He needed an out. A walk and a single prolonged the inning, stalling him one out shy of qualifying for the victory. Arizona had the tying run at the plate. But the game wasn’t only on the line – so was Wainwright’s chances of even qualifying for what could be his 199th career win.

It took him 11 more pitches than scheduled and three batters deeper into the fifth inning than hoped, but Wainwright was on the mound as the fifth inning ended, and he walked off the field eligible and in the lead for No. 199.

The bullpen only had to hold it for him over four innings.

It could not.

But then Arizona’s bullpen couldn’t hold a lead either.

A seesaw of leads against relievers on both sides cost Wainwright a win but ended with a Cardinals victory. Paul Goldschmidt had a key RBI, Lars Nootbaar took a seasoned walk, and Tyler O’Neill emptied the bases with a three-run double in the ninth to catapult the Cardinals to a 10-6 comeback Monday at Chase Field. The Cardinals entered the ninth down by a run and down in the dugout – that chase to get Wainwright a welcome win gone.

The chance to get one for the team not forgotten.

Against Diamondbacks’ closer Andrew Chafin, the Cardinals opened the ninth with a single from Paul DeJong, a walk from pinch-hitter Willson Contreras, and a single from Brendan Donovan to load bases. Goldschmidt, the longtime All-Star fixture in Arizona’s lineup, did what he had done so often in the ninth – just in the top of it. He roped a game-tying single to left. Lefty Chafin walked left-handed batter Nootbaar with the bases loaded to force home the go-ahead run. And O’Neill took the game out of even save territory.

The three RBIs were O’Neill’s first since coming off the injured list.

A laborious ninth inning for Jordan Hicks included two runners in scoring position but no runs allowed as he put the final touch on ending a three-game losing streak.

How No. 199 disappeared

Diamondbacks veteran Evan Longoria entered the game as a pinch-hitter and forced a response from the Cardinals with the tying run in scoring position and the go-ahead run at first. The Cardinals turned to setup man Giovanny Gallegos to get the game through the quagmire and one out closer to Wainwright’s 199th win. Longoria vaporized that notion.

Longoria drilled a two-run double to deep center field that erased the Cardinals’ lead, filched any chance Wainwright had of a win, and sent Arizona into the late innings with a 6-5 lead.

It vanished in the ninth.

The Cardinals’ bullpen allowed four of Arizona’s six runs.

Gallegos, the reliever who allowed the runs that cost Wainwright the win, got the win in relief by pitching the Cardinals into the ninth inning.

Wainwright’s return bodes well

Ahead of schedule, Wainwright came off the injured list and into the rotation to help the Cardinals shoulder some leftover innings. The veteran right-hander was scheduled to face teammates in a live batting practice session at Chase Field on Monday.

Instead he faced the Diamondbacks.

The plan was to give Wainwright around 60 to 65 pitches in his first start since leaving the active roster to address shoulder soreness and hip pain. He had only thrown a 45-pitch bullpn session in the past three weeks. At the same time, the Cardinals want to try and get the veteran his 200th win, so they were going to decide accordingly with how many pitches he needed to get through five innings – the minimum necessary by rule to qualify for a win.

As the fifth approached, Wainwright got better and better, and that decision from the dugout was easier and easier.

His innings were quicker and quicker.

The Diamondback backs had a run on a sacrifice fly when Wainwright got his first out of the first inning. He regained control of the inning by striking out Christian Walker on three pitches – the last of which was a called strike three on an 88.6-mph But from there, he built momentum. Wainwright snuck a high curveball past No. 3 hitter Corbin Carroll for the second out of the third inning, and that was when he really rolled. Carroll was the first of seven consecutive Diamondbacks retired by Wainwright. The right-hander finished the fourth inning on eight pitches.

At times he would change his arm angle to throw off the hitter's vantage point.

At the end of the quick fourth, he had thrown 55 pitches, and that allowed him plenty of room to go out and try to get three outs in the fifth and qualify for the win.

Wainwright retired the first two batters of the inning, retiring in order the bottom two rungs of the Diamondbacks’ lineup. He walked the next batter, lost touch with the strike zone briefly, and allowed a single when he did get a pitch back in it. That put him at 70 pitches with the tying run at the plate in Carroll. The rookie got ahead, 2-0, on the first two pitches before Wainwright leveled the count and then got a deep fly ball out to right field.

Wainwright allowed two runs on four hits and two walks through his five innings. He struck out three, and that snap he’d been looking for on some of his off-speed pitches was there. The average velocity on his sinker was also up 1 mph, to 87.8 mph.

Cornerstones provide power

One of the most productive hitters in the majors for the past month was joined in the same line of the box score by the most productive hitter ever at Chase Field.

More than halfway through their third season together in St. Louis, Nolan Arenado and Goldschmidt homered in the same game for one of the rare times.

Goldschmidt’s two-run homer two batters into the game gave the Cardinals their first lead and the first baseman his 104th career homer at Chase. He is the all-time leader at the ballpark he called home before the trade to the Cardinals after the 2018 season. Arenado followed four innings later with a solo homer in the fifth that widened the Cardinals’ lead. His homer, the 22nd of his season, came with outs.

It is only the 10th time they’ve homered in the same game.

They’ve done it twice this season.

Cardinals rally to break 2-2 tie

The Cardinals took the lead that the bullpen would squander in the fourth inning. Nootbaar opened the inning with a walk, took third on Jordan Walker’s double, and then waited for the rally to gain steam. It got there with a sacrifice fly from Dylan Carlson and then an RBI single by Taylor Motter. Motter’s RBI single put the Cardinals ahead, 4-2. The inning fizzled from there when a double play ended it.