Adam Wainwright earned his 200th career victory. The Cardinals legend led St. Louis to a 1-0 shutout win over the Brewers at Busch Stadium. Wainwright earned the win after tossing seven innings of scoreless innings. Ryan Helsley notched a four-out save. Willson Contreras provided all the offense in the game with a solo home run in the fourth inning. Wainwright becomes the third St. Louis Cardinals pitcher to reach 200 wins. He called it a special night to have it happen in St. Louis.
I was one of many outsiders who felt Wainwright wasn’t going to make it. Wainwright was stuck on 198 wins since June 17 and he had lost ten straight decisions where his ERA was 10.72 during that 11-start stretch. I thought Wainwright should consider stepping away at some point in mid-to-late August. He agreed, he had doubts he could get the two wins.
Two other pitchers in Cardinals history we able to achieve this milestone. Jesse Haines was the first. He pitched from 1920-37 for the Cardinals and finished with 210 career wins and 158 losses in his 18 years in a Cardinals uniform. Bob Gibson became the second, racking up 251 wins over 17 seasons from 1959-to-1975. Gibby had 174 losses. While Haines (3,208.2) and Gibson (3,884.1) threw more innings than Wainwright (2,668.1 and counting), Wainwright has the best winning percentage of the trio in the 200-win club. Wainwright has a winning percentage of .610 as he wraps up year 18. Haines and Gibson are .571 and .591 respectively.
Just to clear up some confusion. You may be seeing social media posts about Wainwright being the second Cardinals pitcher to reach 200. Wainwright and Gibson are the two who spent their entire careers with St. Louis. Haines is the third pitcher and pitched in 555 MLB games. One of those games pitched was for Cincinnati when he was 24 years old in 1918. He pitched five innings for the Reds and got a no-decision. He didn’t pitch again until 1920, when the Cardinals purchased his contract from Kansas City of the American Association for $10,000. (source: Baseball Reference)
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— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) September 19, 2023
St. Louis improved to 67-and-83. Drew Rom goes for his second career win when the Cards host Milwaukee tonight.
