The 66 mph curveball from the right hand of Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright swerved toward Carlos Gonzalez like a haymaker. It spun him around and back toward the dugout. Another strikeout. How are you supposed to hit a pitch so soft, let alone very far?
“That curve is sharp and nasty,” Rockies first baseman Mark Reynolds said before the game. “It doesn’t matter how hard he throws, as long as he has that curve in his back pocket.”
The Cardinals veteran, now 35 years old but still a master manipulator of aerodynamics, whiffed the Rockies (32-19) for seven stellar, shutout innings Saturday in front of a packed-house crowd of 48,106 as St.