Waino fires 8 strong at Coors, but Cards fall

DENVER -- Adam Wainwright loves Coors Field. When he’s had extra days off in the past, he’s spent some time fishing in Colorado. When he’s at the plate doing his second favorite thing after pitching -- hitting -- he’s putting up some of the best offensive numbers in his career.

But when he’s doing that first love -- pitching -- he’s shoving.

No, Wainwright didn’t walk away with a pitching win in Thursday’s 5-2 loss to the Rockies at Coors Field -- a day that saw ceremonies abound with Nolan Arenado making his return to Denver and being named a starter in the All-Star Game -- though he very well deserved to do so, with eight innings of two-run ball over 110 pitches in a game his team lost on a walk-off three-run homer by Elias Díaz off Giovanny Gallegos in the ninth inning.

On the season, it was the seventh quality start in Wainwright’s last eight outings -- and sixth consecutive. His ERA in that span is 2.50, pitching like the ace the Cardinals need with Jack Flaherty still well away from a return from injury. And his career ERA at Coors Field, somehow, rose on Thursday, from 2.21 to 2.22.

Now, it has some in St. Louis thinking All-Star Game for Wainwright, at the age of 39.

“Whether it's true or not, I always consider myself the best pitcher in the game when I go out there,” Wainwright said. “As soon as I stop thinking that way, I'll retire. That’s the edge I try to bring out there.

“It doesn't surprise me when I do well. It seemingly surprises everyone else, but that's fine. It does not surprise me, because that's what I expect to do.”

Thursday's start resulted in Wainwright lowering his season ERA to 3.49. It also marked his fourth consecutive start reaching at least 100 pitches, his ninth such outing of the season. He only issued one walk -- but of course that’s the first run that scored, on a two-run homer by Brendan Rodgers in the second.

After the homer, Wainwright allowed only five more baserunners (one thanks to an error) and one runner past second base.

“Waino came up in an era that trained -- and he's probably one of the last parts of that era of the game -- that trained or expected pitchers to go deep in games,” said manager Mike Shildt. “He trained himself. He was groomed to do it.”

And how does Wainwright do it at Coors Field on an annual basis, where, eerily similar to Thursday, he pitched the Cardinals to a playoff-clinching victory with eight innings of three-run (two earned) ball in 2009 on a now unheard of 130 pitches?

“One of my first couple times here, I’m realizing, usually the guy I'm pitching against doesn't want to pitch here,” Wainwright said. “So if I embraced that, then I had an edge right away. ...

“Pitching here is like the ultimate art. I just love it. I love coming here to pitch. It doesn't make any sense in the world.”

But the positive pitching developments ended with Wainwright, partly because he needed only one pitcher to follow him.

That task fell to Gallegos, whose own string of solid pitching lately has inspired talk from Shildt about the reliever being worthy of an All-Star nod himself.

But Gallegos’ night went awry when he walked a pair of two-out batters, moving the line to Díaz, owner of two hits already on the night.

Up 0-2 in the count, Gallegos hung a slider middle-middle that was hammered 106.9 mph and 424 feet into left field, a three-run walk-off home run for the Rockies.

“The walk to Rodgers was the one, because we were tapdancing around pitching [Ryan] McMahon pretty tough, so that was a walk we could deal with,” Shildt said. “And then, nasty slider and a slider that just got too much plate, and Díaz put a good swing on it.”