Stock Up, Stock Down: Cardinals, Phillies, Red Sox, Diamondbacks

It was an interesting week of baseball in terms of plenty of storylines on the field of play. A veteran pitcher with the St. Louis Cardinals reached a milestone, some teams improved their postseason chances, while some hurt them. With just three series remaining, it’s going to be now or never for some teams in their chance for October baseball.

In the latest edition of Stock Up, Stock Down, a well-deserved pitching milestone is reached, while another pitcher is struggling and more.

Stock Up: Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals

There was some talk in August about the St. Louis Cardinals possibly taking veteran pitcher Adam Wainwright out of the starting rotation. At the time, I wrote about how that would be a mistake and they owed it to their right-hander to keep him in there as the playoffs were not going to happen in 2023. The reason for keeping him there? So he could have a chance to get career victory No. 200.

Mission accomplished.

In Monday’s 1-0 win over the National League Central Division leader the Milwaukee Brewers, the Cardinals’ 42-year-old threw 7.0 innings allowing just four hits and striking out three. It was his best outing of the season and it came at the right time as the veteran is playing his final season and reaching a milestone win was big instead of leaving it for his final start.

Wainwright became the 38th pitcher in the National League history to win 200 games and he became the 24th pitcher to do it since 2000. It’s a nice way for one of the game’s best pitchers in his prime to go out with the Cardinals.