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Cardinals’ Wainwright gains first victory since 2010 to cap comeback from elbow surgery

By Joe Strauss, St. Louis Post-Dispatch –

ST. LOUIS — Tuesday marked 428 days since Adam Wainwright put his career on a surgeon’s table.

It also represented one of the more significant mile markers of a career no longer on hold.

Given the unique combination of a pain-free elbow and an offense that clicked, Wainwright wrung his first win in more than 20 months from the Cardinals’ 10-7 decision over the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium.

(PHOTO: The St. Louis Cardinals’ Rafael Furcal, middle, is congratulated by teammates in the dugout after hitting a two-run home run in the seventh inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri. The Cards won, 10-7.)

Five starts into his return from elbow ligament replacement surgery, Wainwright struck out six in seven innings blemished only by a pair of two-run home runs. The Cardinals, who had not scored with Wainwright in the game during his previous four starts, reached Pirates starter Charlie Morton for six runs before chasing him from the fifth inning.

The Cardinals scored a first-inning run following shortstop Rafael Furcal’s leadoff double and righted a 2-1 deficit when third baseman David Freese cranked a three-run home run in a four-run fifth inning.

Left fielder Matt Holliday crammed a sixth-inning home run within a three-hit night. Furcal contributed his first home run of the season to complete the Cardinals’ three-run seventh inning, which gave them a six-run lead.

Rather than sweating indifferent run support, Wainwright was made a bit uncomfortable by a queasy eighth inning in which the Pirates reached Fernando Salas and J.C. Romero for three runs before Victor Marte escaped via a ground smash at replacement first baseman Matt Carpenter.

Down 10-4 when the two-out rally started, the Pirates brought the tying run to the plate against Marte. Jason Motte worked the ninth inning for his fourth save of the season and first in 11 days.

The win was Wainwright’s first since Sept. 24, 2010, a verdict that made him a 20-game winner for the first time in his career. The Cardinals didn’t use him for the rest of that season, a move more fully explained when he further damaged the elbow ligament during live batting practice five months later.

There was little hesitation Tuesday against a team that had left him with a career 4.76 ERA against it. Wainwright threw three balls to only three of the 26 batters he faced. After battling inefficiency in his earlier outings, Wainwright zoomed through Tuesday’s first six innings. He finished with 92 pitches, including 65 strikes, and asked his outfield for only one putout.

“I think if you look at 90 percent of my game today it was pretty good,” Wainwright estimated. “The rest of it, I’ll continue to go out there and try to get better and better.”

In his previous start Wainwright found better feel for his signature curveball. In Tuesday’s start he found more consistent command of his fastball. If he shied from contact in his earlier starts, Wainwright said he again embraces a more aggressive approach where quick results are more desirable than strikeouts.

Still, he still sees the form that nearly earned him consecutive Cy Young Awards in the distance.

“It’s good to get a win but I’ve certainly got a long way to go,” Wainwright said. “I’m more concerned about the quality of my pitches and my execution throughout a game. I feel like I’m on the right track.”

The Pirates scored on a pair of two-run home runs by right fielder Jose Tabata and third baseman Jose Alvarez. Tabata’s shot on a misplaced third-inning curve briefly left Wainwright doubled over with a 2-1 deficit. The Cardinals responded with six consecutive runs worth a 7-2 lead.

The Cardinals became the first team to score more than six runs against the Pirates in 23 games. The outpouring of run support for Wainwright contrasted the Cardinals’ inability to score for him in his previous 19 2/3 innings of work.

The Pirates’ errors led to four unearned runs against the team. Catcher Yadier Molina scored three times after stealing two bases, including once on the front end of a double steal. Freese smoked his fourth home run in six games.

After hitting .215 during a frustrating April, Holliday capped his second three-hit game of the season with a sixth-inning drive into the left-center field bleachers.

“I think the challenge of major-league baseball is you’ve got to come back tomorrow and take good swings out there again. I don’t get ahead of myself but I did feel good tonight,” Holliday said.

Morton, who allowed only one home run to righthanded hitters last season, handled the Cardinals for five innings in Pittsburgh last month by getting them to chase his sinking fastball out of the strike zone. This time the Cardinals adhered to hitting coach Mark McGwire’s advice by staying patient against the pitch. As a result, Morton strayed more often over the middle of the plate. Morton fell to 2-7 in 11 career starts against the Cardinals.

“If you keep swinging at them when they’re coming in, you can’t do any damage,” Freese said. “You’ve got to push these guys over the plate. In this league, if you can’t handle the sinker you’ve got problems. You’ve got to take it if it’s in off the plate. They want you to swing at it. Big Mac preaches that. You work counts.”

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