Wainwright dominates Dodgers, improves to 10-0 at home

Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright nearly won the National League Cy Young Award last season and he has put his name atop the list of candidates again this year.

Through 20 starts, the 28-year-old right-hander is 14-5 with a 2.02 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP and 130 strikeouts in 142 1/3 innings. He has four complete games and one shutout, and on Saturday night he was excellent once again.

Wainwright allowed only five hits over six scoreless innings and added three strikeouts to his season-long total as the Cardinals won their third consecutive game over the Dodgers. He also became the first St. Louis pitcher to win his first 10 starts at home since the fine folks at STATS LLC began recording such things in 1920. He has thrown 19 straight scoreless innings.

The success isn’t anything new for Waino, and it’s certainly not catching anybody by surprise. Cardinals fans, though, will be happy to know that he is still working to get better. At the All-Star Game last week, he learned Tim Lincecum’s changeup and used it in his first start of the second half.

“I asked him his changeup grip and he showed it to me,” Wainwright said Saturday. “I hope this doesn’t get him in trouble but I threw it in the bullpen during the All-Star game. I kind of worked with it on the fly during the game today. I probably threw eight or 10 of them. It’s a work in progress but it’s a certainly a good pitch.”

His ERA at Busch Stadium this year is 1.13 and he’s fired 27 consecutive quality starts at home. Back when Cardinals legend Bob Gibson recorded his famous 1.12 earned-run average in the summer of 1968, his home ERA was 1.41. In some ways this season, Wainwright has been better.