Wainwright homers, leads Cardinals over Dodgers

ST. LOUIS — Adam Wainwright credits a more rigorous pregame warmup routine as part of the reason for his May rebound.

Wainwright hit a two-run homer off Brandon Mccarthy and pitched six innings of four-hit ball, leading the St. Louis Cardinals over the Los Angeles Dodgers 2-0 on Thursday for a fourgame split.

“Earlier in my career it was a little different when I took the mound, my first pitch of the game I was hot and I was ready to rock,” the 35-year-old Wainwright said. “I could still probably do that now, but I feel more prepared when I get a good warm up now.”

After finishing April 2-3 with a 6.11 ERA, Wainwright was 3-0 in May.

Wainwright (6-3) struck out six and walked two, pitching out of two-on, one-out jams in the fourth and fifth, and extending his scoreless streak to 16 1/3 innings. His ERA has dropped to 3.79.

Matt Bowman, Trevor Rosenthal and Seung Hwan Oh pitched an inning each to complete a five-hitter. Oh threw a one-hit ninth for his 13th save in 15 chances.

Wainwright followed Paul Dejong’s second-inning single with a drive over the left-field bullpen for his 10th career homer. Wainwright has six hits and seven RBIS this season.

“He showed me the curveball before and kind of locked me up a little bit, but he threw it out of the same slot the next time and I was able to put a good swing on it,” Wainwright said.