ST. LOUIS -- The roar from what was left of the Busch Stadium crowd started as soon as the 6-foot-7 pinch-hitter touched the top step of the dugout, and the noise reached a crescendo when Adam Wainwright -- wearing batting gloves and lugging a bat instead of gripping a curveball -- stepped into the batter’s box.

Naturally, Wainwright did the same thing he did 17 years earlier by taking a mighty whack at the first pitch he saw. However, unlike May 24, 2006, when Wainwright became one of just 31 players in MLB history to homer on the first pitch he saw, this time around, he fouled it straight back. And the crowd of 38,964 on hand on Friday night to celebrate Wainwright all weekend before he retires didn’t seem to mind one bit.

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The at-bat ended with Wainwright grounding sharply to second. Wainwright, who will retire on Sunday following 200 pitching wins, a 2006 World Series victory and 18 seasons as a Cardinal, was still cheered for the 102.1 mph grounder that will undoubtedly go down as the most memorable moment for the Cardinals in a 19-2 loss to the rival Reds.

Afterward, Wainwright was late getting to his dressing stall because he was chosen for a random drug screening.

“Well, that’s what happens when you hit the ball 102 [mph],” Wainwright joked.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Wainwright’s appearance was just the fourth time in the DH era that a pitcher was used to pinch-hit for a DH. The last time it happened was in 2015, when Joe Ross pinch-hit for the Nationals. On Friday, it was Wainwright hitting for 6-foot-4, 280-pound rookie Luken Baker, who has two career home runs.

“How many big league homers does [Baker] have?” joked Wainwright, who has 10 career long balls to his credit. “That’s what I always tell our young guys. When [Lars] Nootbaar and [Andrew Knizner] hit their 11th home runs, they said it was one of the highlights of their lives because then I couldn’t say to them, ‘Hey, how many big league homers do you have? Oh, I guess they are going to let you play today instead of me.’”

With the Cardinals suffering their worst loss to the Reds since a 19-1 defeat on Aug. 12, 1882, per MLB.com’s Sarah Langs, manager Oliver Marmol went down into the clubhouse in the middle of the sixth inning and talked to Wainwright about hitting that inning. The pitcher had been pining for one more at-bat for months, even pulling Marmol on stage last January during his country concert and making him promise to the crowd that the veteran pitcher would get more chances to hit.

Even though he didn’t get a hit, Wainwright said the whole scene -- hiding in the tunnel, coming out of the dugout to cheers and hitting a rocket to second base -- felt dreamlike.

“Oli comes in and says, ‘I don’t know what the next two days hold, so let’s do it right now,’” Wainwright recalled. “I was like, ‘You mean, like right now?’

“That’s probably one of the most fun feelings I’ve ever had. I wish we were winning the game, obviously, but I missed doing that because I never thought I’d be able to do it again.”

Earlier in the day, Wainwright put on a show for the cheering fans lining the warning track and teammates gathered around the batting cage by smashing three batting practice homers. He had no problem driving the ball out of the park even though it was the first time he had taken batting practice on the field since 2021.

“It was a little better than I thought it was going to be and it came back to me a little easier,” Wainwright said. “I’m still not firing off my back side very well. So there’s a little bit more in the tank, but the hands still work.”

Just two weeks after winning his 200th game at Busch Stadium, Wainwright will hold a three-song country music concert following Saturday’s game. He spent most of Friday morning rehearsing for the set he will play for many of the same fans who heard him belt out the national anthem on Opening Day. Wainwright’s first album is set to be released in early 2024, he said.

Asked which will be more nerve-racking -- hitting for the first time in years or singing to the crowd -- Wainwright leaned toward the latter.

“If I botch it, you’ll know that it’s just absolute nerves because we’ve got this thing down,” Wainwright said after batting practice. “I think we’ll do all right. It’ll be fun, I know that.”