Wainwright: ‘You can say I’m dangerous again’

ST. LOUIS — Insistent after his last outing — a five-inning clunker against the Angels — that he was wiping the season slate clean, Adam Wainwright responded with the sort of fresh start on Wednesday that can hush the premature chatter about his decline.

Wainwright’s strongest performance of the season served as the backbone in the Cardinals’ 2-0 win, and the positives oozed from the outing. The bite to his curveball was back, as was the life on his two-seamer. He pitched into the seventh for the first time this year, worked around leadoff hits in four different innings, and held the Rockies hitless in nine chances with a runner in scoring position.

Wainwright, a four-time National League Cy Young Award top-three finisher, wasn’t ready to boast about being back in vintage form. But he felt as close as he’s been in more than a year.

“I’m dangerous,” Wainwright said. “You can say I’m dangerous again.”

Wainwright had just about nowhere to go but up, as he entered the night with an ERA (6.80) that ranked 100th among the Majors’ 101 qualifying starters. By shaving it to 5.92 with Wednesday’s start, Wainwright moved up three notches on that list.

His was the third scoreless start by a Cardinals pitcher this season of more than …

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