The St. Louis Cardinals received terrible news on ace Adam Wainwright. He is out for the year with an Achilles injury he suffered on Saturday in St. Louis’ 5-3 win. Wainwright popped-up leading off the fifth inning and stumbled out of the batter’s box. According to ESPN, Wainwright said, “It felt like I got hit by something. If you look at the replay, I kind of get out of the box and look back to think, gosh, the catcher’s mask must have hit me or the bat must have hit me or something must have hit me. Crazy game, something crazy like that you can never think.” It is expected he will miss the rest of the season. General Manager John Mozeliak saw Wainwright’s injury and he knew Adam would be out a long time. Mozeliak said, “I would imagine that with this injury he will not pitch again this season.” What will this mean for the Cardinals?
Wainwright is the ace of the Cardinals’ pitching staff. This year he was 2-1 with a 1.44 ERA and 18 strikeouts, on his way to a great season.
Since 2012, Wainwright has been baseballs’ best pitcher. He is number one for shutouts and complete games with 7 shutouts and 13 complete games. His 22 wins ranks second in the league. He also has an ERA of 2.99 which ranks 6th.
The Cardinals will miss Wainwright. According to ESPN, St. Louis Manager Mike Matheny knows that losing Wainwright will be tough. He said, “I think the test is going to be, with Adam, and everyone in here can see the difference in our attitude. We treasure every win we have, but it was different in here last night. We’re just going to hopefully let the guys go back out there and play. They had a little time to think about some of this and the response and the answer is, we knew that some tests were going to come. And this is a big one that we’re getting early. Let’s see what we’re made of.” Last season Wainwright had 179 strikeouts. The Cardinals have one of the best hitting lineups in the game. The pitching staff is going to have to step up for St. Louis to stay in the race to win the NL Central.
Lance Lynn becomes the ace for the Cardinals with Wainwright out of the lineup. He doesn’t think there will be added pressure to win games with Wainwright out. Lynn has to be a better pitcher than he has shown so far this year for the Cardinals to have success in Wainwright’s absence. The ERA needs to come down. He is at a 3.63 ERA so far this season. He also will have to strike batters out. It will be interesting to see if St. Louis stays atop the NL Central this year without their ace pitcher.
How much will the Cardinals miss Adam Wainwright?
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