The St. Louis Cardinals will likely face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL wild-card game. But that didn’t stop them from naming righty Adam Wainwright as the starter for the showdown.
The news was revealed by the Cardinals’ manager Mike Shildt during a chat with reporters on Thursday.
“He gets better as the game goes, he goes deep in games, he’s a big-game pitcher,” Shildt said of Wainwright.
The decision to start Wainwright doesn’t come as a surprise, as he is currently enjoying his most productive season in years. He has a 17-7 record in 32 starts while posting 3.05 ERA and 174 strikeouts.
Adam Wainwright will have the honor to be the oldest pitcher to start an MLB wild-card game at the age of 40. The previous oldest pitcher to start in wild-card was Charlie Morton, who did it in 2019 with the Tampa Bay Rays as a 35-year-old.
So far in his MLB career, Wainwright made 28 starts in the postseason and has 4-5 record to show for.
The Cardinals are set to go against the second-played team in NL West, which could be either the Los Angeles Dodgers or the San Francisco Giants. The Dodgers are currently at number two with two games behind the Giants, and four left to play.
