Wainwright joins Hall of Fame pitchers Bob Gibson, Jesse Haines in the Cardinals’ 200-win club

It could’ve happened such a long time ago.

Months, perhaps, or even years. Adam Wainwright’s chase for 200 might’ve been a footnote to his career, or a charming postscript, rather than a grueling, quixotic slog fraught with peril and anxiety over whether it would end.

The hypotheticals no longer seem to matter much.

Wainwright won the 200th game of his storied career on Monday night in front of a tense Busch Stadium crowd of 33,176 that will, in the decades to come, be claimed by perhaps ten or a hundred times as many people. St. Louis defeated the Milwaukee Brewers in exhilarating fashion, 1-0, to finally, mercifully notch Wainwright’s fifth win of 2023.

Wainwright gutted out seven shutout innings, allowing four hits and two walks with three strikeouts, en route to his historic achievement. He joins Hall of Famers Bob Gibson and Jesse Haines as 200-game winners with the Cardinals.

“When you think of the St. Louis Cardinals, you think of Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright for the last 20 years,” reliever Ryan Helsley said before Monday’s game. “Him pushing for his 200th win is obviously a huge ordeal, and he’s just been a great role model for all of us in here, pitchers and position players alike.”

It was Helsley, following lefty John King, who was called upon to finish the game after Wainwright’s longest start of the season. That he was able to pitch Monday is a testament to just how highly the organization valued this accomplishment for its stalwart.

Manager Oliver Marmol, faced in Sunday’s eighth inning with first a one-run lead and then a tie game, stayed with King against Phillies righties Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner.

Had Helsley entered the game in the eighth and returned to the game for the ninth, that usage – “two ups,” as the lingo goes – would’ve likely left him unavailable for action Monday. Marmol was candid Sunday that he had to manage with Monday at the front of his mind, risking one win for the potential of one with a much larger impact.

The game dealt itself a 20. Marmol came up with Blackjack.

“He’s the real deal,” Marmol said of Wainwright, relating a story about his days in the minor leagues when the pitcher and his wife covered the costs for his now-manager, then making a pittance as a minor league player without a significant signing bonus, to attend a retreat on faith and relationships with his wife.

The Marmols have since paid that forward to other couples. It was one small (to Wainwright) gesture which sprouted many others, as is common over the course of his storied career.

Providing the sum total of Monday’s offense was Willson Contreras, who’s weathered many of his own challenges in his first season in St. Louis and emerged as a consistent force and presence behind the plate. After a career-long partnership with Molina which set an unbreakable record of 328 starts as a battery, it’s fitting and proper that his catcher would again be who came through.