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Cardinals lose season’s best showdown but bounce back to win
- Updated: July 28, 2016
12:19 AM ET
NEW YORK — When baseball is at its most electric, the stadium becomes a blur, the crowd becomes a murmur and the 48 other players and four umpires become meaningless bystanders. The entire focus is on one elite pitcher and one elite batter, with both of their senses tuned to microscopic alertness.
Wednesday night at Citi Field had one of those moments when the St. Louis Cardinals’ Adam Wainwright faced the New York Mets’ Yoenis Cespedes in the seventh inning.
A few starts ago, Wainwright mentioned in his postgame comments that he was “hearing the music” again. When he is particularly comfortable with his mechanics and the sharpness of his pitches, he feels at times on the mound as if he is conducting an orchestra. He is able to change speeds and vary locations to generate a harmony of movement and command. When he is able to do that, he rarely hears any ugly sound, such as a ball colliding violently with a wooden bat.
His manager, Mike Matheny, picked up on that too. Maybe he could hear it. So although he often has lifted pitchers — even those performing well — when their spot came up in the lineup after the fifth inning lately, he let Wainwright roll. Through 100 pitches. Through 110 pitches. To face one of the league’s most menacing hitters with a runner on, despite relievers who were warmed and ready.
Wainwright had earned that by overcoming a lousy start to this season to go 4-0 with a 0.93 ERA thus far in July. He had earned it by putting up quality starts in eight of his nine previous outings. He had earned it during the game by getting out of jams in virtually every inning. The Mets leadoff hitter singled in both …
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