Wainwright 'dangerous again' after solid outing

After telling reporters last week he was "starting over" following yet another rough outing, St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright looked very much like a different dude Wednesday at Busch Stadium, where the reborn ace hurled 6 2/3 scoreless innings - easily his best outing of 2016 - en route to a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

So, Wainwright said, watch out.

"I'm dangerous," the three-time All-Star told MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. "You can say I'm dangerous again."

Though the 34-year-old didn't see a big spike in ground balls or swinging strikes, Wainwright threw his sinker more than he had (43.1 percent) in any of his previous eight outings, helping him post his second-lowest hard-hit ball rate (19.1 percent) of 2016. Of the six hits he allowed, only two - a first-inning triple from Charlie Blackmon and a double from Mark Reynolds in the fourth - went for extra bases, and only five of the 27 batters he faced put the ball in play with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher.

With his velocity starting to wane, Wainwright said he essentially wants to mimic Roy Halladay, the two-time Cy Young award winner who tormented hitters not with overpowering stuff, but movement and location.

"The year he won his last Cy Young, he was sinking the ball at 94 (mph) and cutting it at 91 and 92," Wainwright said. "He was a freak, but I loved the way he attacked hitters and made them on the defensive from the very start of the game, attacked both sides of the plate and worked up and down when he needed to. He was just a very, very good pitcher."

Wainwright, who has finished either second or third in Cy Young voting four times, still owns an unsightly 5.92 ERA and abnormally low 2.21 strikeout-to-walk ratio through nine starts, but closer Trevor Rosenthal was very encouraged by Wednesday's outing.

"He's always been that guy," Rosenthal said. "The character he has in the clubhouse, the leadership, that's what we look for from him as a No. 1. He's going to help our young talent on the starting pitching side through it and help them through their careers as well as be a cornerstone for this clubhouse and team. He's going to have his day. He's going to have a lot more good starts in a row soon."