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Wainwright dazzles as Cardinals roll past Royals

Jun 14, 2007 - 5:06 AM KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- Adam Wainwright can't wait to come back to Kansas City.

Wainwright was brilliant in his first career start against the Royals, pitching eight brilliant innings as the St. Louis Cardinals coasted to a 7-3 victory on Wednesday night.

Wainwright (5-5) struck out three and walked two for his longest outing of the season and allowed just one hit, a two-out single to Esteban German in the sixth inning.

"In the second inning, I gave up three hard-hit balls right at people," Wainwright said. "I said, 'What the hell, (Wednesday) be a pretty good day to do it (pitch a no-hitter).' I know how hard that is to do. Every time that I've been remotely close in the past, I'd go, 'Oh, heck, I'm pitching a no-hitter and all of a sudden, three hits. The first time I realized I was on it, I thought about it as much as possible.

"I kept telling myself you can only control what you can do. If they hit the ball hard at somebody, so be it, all I can do is control what I can do."

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was proud of the 25-year-old righthander.

"(Wainwright) showed us what he was capable of doing," La Russa said. "He threw a bunch of different pitches and did what he had to do. He threw strikes to every part of the strike zone and he can be a special pitcher and he was."

It was the ninth victory in the last 11 games for the Cardinals in Kansas City. Overall, St. Louis has won 13 of the last 17 games played between the two intrastate rivals.

"We didn't have any chances (to score)," Royals manager Buddy Bell said. "With (Wainwright), we didn't do anything."

Wainwright got all the run support he needed in the first inning, when 2005 National League MVP Albert Pujols stroked a one-out single to center field to score David Eckstein, who hit a leadoff double.

St. Louis extended its lead during a five-run second. Aaron Miles lofted a sacrifice fly, Pujols delivered a two-run single and Juan Encarnacion followed with a two-run single to cap the uprising against Royals starter Odalis Perez (3-7).

"It was good hitting," La Russa said. "You get into a groove and hitters hit balls that find holes."

Encarnacion and Pujols each finished with two hits on the evening.

In the fourth, Scott Rolen added a sacrifice fly against Joel Peralta - the Royals' third pitcher of the inning. Peralta replaced Brandon Duckworth, who left the game with tightness in his left rib cage after throwing just two pitches.

Perez was tagged for seven runs and 10 hits, falling to 2-4 all-time against the defending World Series champions. It was the lefthander's second-shortest outing this season, having lasted just 1 1/3 frames in a loss at Toronto on April 9.

"I was throwing the ball up," Perez said. "Against that team, that's what you get. The two singles to Pujols were not hit that hard. Those were not bad pitches. Things like that happen. You try hard to keep your team in the game, and I couldn't do it. I didn't have command of my pitches."

"His stuff was all right, but he didn't have command," Bell said. "He couldn't use both sides of the plate. He was up, too."

Kansas City finally got on the board in the ninth, when rookie Alex Gordon belted a three-run shot off Tyler Johnson. The Royals' offense had scored 25 combined runs in their previous two games, highlighted by Sunday's 17-5 victory against Philadelphia.