The St. Louis Cardinals (46-40) are just 2.5 games behind the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates (48-37), which is a good position for a playoffs run after the first half. But SP Adam Wainwright is not as well-positioned after his first half. The veteran righty spoke with the media before his start on Friday and expressed concerns over his first half and ambitions for the second half:
"There's a lot of things in the first half that I'd liked to have done a whole lot better," Wainwright said. "I wasn't satisfied by any means with my first half. That's a throwaway for me.
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"But if you look at the second half of the first half, I was a completely different pitcher than I was the first half of the first half, if that makes sense. And, eventually, by the end of this season, things will be falling into place like they should."
The 6-foot-7 Wainwright struggled early in the season, posting a 7.32 ERA through his first 19 and 2/3 innings. His peripheral numbers improved each month after the first, culminating in a six-inning, one-earned-run start at the beginning of July.
Wainwright squares off against the second-place Cincinnati Reds (47-38) on Friday night at 6:10 p.m. CDT.
For updates, stay tuned to SB Nation St. Louis. For more coverage of this series, visit St. Louis Cardinals blog Viva El Birdos and Reds blog Red Reporter. For additional baseball coverage, check out Baseball Nation and MLB Daily Dish.