ST. LOUIS -- Even now, with his back barking and his shoulder fatiguing at the age of 42, Cardinals cornerstone Adam Wainwright still savors toying with hitters.

The hitter likes pitches up, and Wainwright goes down. The hitter is leaning out over the plate, he’ll bust them in with a cutter. And just when the hitter seems to be salivating for a fastball, Wainwright still has a knack for knowing when to spin a knee-buckling curveball.

“Pitching, when done right, is an artwork,” Wainwright said recently. “And I still love that part of the game so much.”

Wainwright, whose 18-year MLB career ends this weekend, is no longer the pitcher he was when he made three All-Star teams, won two Gold Gloves and helped the Cards capture a World Series crown in 2006. But there was still enough guile left in his gut to fool hitters and get outs -- as he proved on Sept. 18 when he blanked the Brewers over seven innings to earn the 200th victory of his career.

Along the way to that milestone win were so many memorable moments featuring No. 50. And with his career now sunsetting, Wainwright, with his welcoming smile, folksy charm and gift of storytelling, sat down with MLB.com to revisit some of the biggest.

April 3, 2006: Wainwright freezes Phillies outfielder David Dellucci for his first MLB strikeout

“That was a great moment for me, but the craziest thing about that whole moment was that the next hitter was Jimmy Rollins, and he had a 36-game hitting streak going. I forgot to throw the ball in after my first strikeout because it didn’t even cross my mind that it was my first strikeout. Jimmy stepped in the box and I went 3-0 on him, and it was the eighth inning and the whole crowd was booing me. The Philly crowd was booing me because of the hit streak, and they thought I was just going to walk him. He swung 3-0, actually, and hit a double down the right-field line with my strikeout ball. Jimmy got to keep that ball and they wrote on there, ‘Jimmy Rollins, 37-game hitting streak,’ because you never know if that's your last one. He ended up getting to 40, I think, and he sent me the strikeout ball. It says Jimmy Rollins, No. 37, on it, but I didn’t care.”

May 24, 2006: Wainwright’s first MLB home run (Note: Wainwright is one of 31 players in MLB history to homer on the first pitch of his first career at-bat)

“[Former Cardinals manager] Tony [La Russa] came over and said, ‘We're going to hit for you’ and ‘Good job!’ I said, ‘Whatever, no problem.’ Then, maybe 30 seconds later, Tony came back up and said, ‘Actually, we're going to let you hit. I need you to get a couple more innings in.’ Because of that, I didn't really have time to think about anything and I just grabbed the first helmet I saw, first batting gloves I saw and a bat and just ran up there and didn't even take a practice swing and just got in the box and hit the first pitch out. I ended up taking another at-bat off Noah [Lowry], and I knew he was going to throw me a first-pitch changeup and I should have waited. I just barely missed it or I would have hit two that day.

“My patented line has always been when anybody gets up here new and they get a hit or whatever, I'm like, ‘Oh, single, that’s not too bad, and pretty cool to do it on your first at-bat.’ Or, when somebody finally hits their first home run, I’m like, ‘Wow, how may at-bats did that take you to do that? Like 80 or 90? Oh, me? Well, it only took me one at-bat to homer.’”

Oct. 19, 2006: NLCS, Game 7, Wainwright strikes out Beltrán to end NLCS

“What stays with me more than anything is remembering how loud that crowd was with the first two batters and how quiet that crowd was after that [strikeout]. I was fully invested in that game, and I fully believed I was going to get out of that jam and fully believed in my execution. There were so many little life lessons learned along the way that got me through that moment. I remember [former Cards closer Jason] Isringhausen telling me, ‘When you get in those big spots and the game starts to speed up on you, just step off and breathe.’ Just simple thoughts like that help so much. I did that and it reset me and just the crowd went away. It was like that movie, [‘For Love of the Game’], when he clears the mechanism. I cleared the mechanism. I couldn't hear anything out there.

“The other thing that really sticks with me from that night, besides the finishing pitches, is that first pitch of the Beltrán at-bat. We were going to go sinker, down and away, but then Yadi [Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina] had some kind of sixth sense to call for a changeup. That really just kind of messed Beltrán up and he didn't really know what to expect after that. You go changeup in that spot, it's just really kind of crazy, and I would never think about doing that now. It would be unforgivable if you give up a hit there to tie the game or worse with your fourth-best pitch as a reliever. But it was a brilliant call, and I’m glad that we executed it.”

Oct. 27, 2006, World Series, Game 5: Wainwright strikes out Tigers infielder Brandon Inge to win the World Series

“[Inge's] at-bat off me before was a double that he hit off me in the right-center gap on a fastball. He's a dead-red fastball hitter, and because of that hit before, I knew he had that in his memory. I had a good fastball working, and I knew he had to respect it, but I knew that's what he wanted, so we used three sliders in a row on the outside corner. They looked like fastballs, and then just kind of darted off the plate. He was a great hitter and a super stud athlete, great defender and a great fastball hitter, so we used that against him. But that's why that worked right there. You hate to give up hits in previous at-bats, but that hit earlier led me to success later on in that big spot to close out the World Series.”

April 6, 2007: Wainwright defeats the Astros for his first win as a starter

“Seven innings, one run, three or four hits [5 hits], I think. That was a good Astros lineup, too.

“I had first-and-third, one out in the seventh, and Brad Ausmus tried to bunt with a safety squeeze, and I flipped it to Yadi, and he tagged him out at home and then threw the guy out at first for a double play. I remember walking off the mound and coming into the dugout and [former Cardinals pitching coach] Dave Duncan said, ‘Well, the good thing is you pitched a great game -- seven innings, one run and a couple of hits. But the bad news is you've set the bar high, so this is what I will expect from you every single time!’ That's a line I still use on all these young pitchers today.”

Sept. 24, 2010: Wainwright becomes a 20-game winner for the first time

“I've won 20 games at Wrigley Field twice. What I remember most about that was it was my last start of the year, and I knew I only had one more crack at it. Then, to go into your biggest rival’s place and win your 20th game when you know that’s your last chance to do it, that was a really cool moment for me. You know, especially doing it at Wrigley, and I just really love beating the Cubs. That's my favorite place to win and favorite people to beat.”

Oct. 9, 2013: NLDS, Wainwright wins the decisive Game 5. (Note: The Cardinals would go on to defeat the Dodgers in the NLCS and lose to the Red Sox in the World Series)

“In Game 4 in Pittsburgh, Michael Wacha had just pitched an unbelievable game where they had blacked out the whole stadium, the Clemente Bridge was covered with fans, and they were so loud and the stadium was rocking. That was the year they made Johnny Cueto balk and drop the ball on the rubber because they were so loud in the stands.

“Wacha went in there and hushed them up really quick, and almost threw a no-hitter on them to get it back to our place. One of the things that I remember most is I would always say the night before I pitched any game, ‘Get some sleep, boys! Biggest game of the year tomorrow!’ I remember that after we won that Game 4 in Pittsburgh, we came back into the clubhouse and I yelled, ‘Get some sleep, boys!’ Everyone started to yell because they knew I was locked in, and they knew it was over and I did, too. Turns out, they were right, and it was a great Game 5 for us.”