Chalk up Friday night as another example of something being wrong with Adam Wainwright. The Brewers catcher and fine hitter Jonathan Lucroy sums it up:
Lucroy’s double came on what Wainwright thought was a good pitch, but the Brewers’ catcher said he saw a different Wainwright most of the night.
“He made a lot of mistakes. I’ve never seen him like that,” said Lucroy.
The seven runs allowed by Wainwright matched his highest allotment of the season, on May 30, when he permitted seven in 4 1/3 innings to San Francisco. But two starts ago, Wainwright (13-6) had given up six runs, four earned, in 4 2/3 innings against Tampa Bay here. Wainwright thought his stuff was much better Friday than in the two aforementioned games.
Through the end of May, Wainwright was recording a striking in 26% of batter at bats. Since then, it’s down to 18%. He’s not fooling hitters like he was, and now it’s starting to show up in the runs column.
The Brewers beat the Cardinals 7-4. Wainwright falls behind Clayton Kershaw in NL Cy Young Tracker points.
Interestingly, he pitched his 1st bad game of the year on May 30th against the Giants. He struggled from the start in that game. His previous outing, he threw a season high 117 pitches in Cincinnati. That almost suggests he was left in too long & maybe did something to his arm and now he’s just trying to pitch through it. On the other hand, he has thrown more pitches in a game several times in his career. Last year he even had a 2.26 ERA in the 5 games where he threw more than 117 pitches. So, maybe I’m wrong, but it does seem like something might’ve gone wrong there in Cincinnati on May 25th even if it ain’t overuse.
Not a good game for Wainwright–he pitched as if “Jeter” was the name on the top of all the Brewers’ uniforms. 😛