Into the ground

My cap is off to Adam Wainwright who gutted through nine innings to try to give his team a chance to win even though it couldn't muster any offense once again.

But it is absolutely insane for manager Tony La Russa to let his only healthy front line starter throw 130 pitches.

Could it have been any more obvious that Wainwright was done? He was wild, up in the zone and his fastball was topping out at 84 miles an hour in the ninth.

This is yet another example of La Russa managing the details and neglecting the big picture. He wanted to give Wainwright a reward for pitching well, so he put the whole team in jeopardy.

Unbelievably, Wainwright was allowed to come to the plate in the bottom of the ninth. I figured it was just to bunt with speedy Brian Barton on base. But when Wainwright bunted into a force out, why in the world was he allowed to stay in to run?

I don't know if La Russa was sleeping at the wheel or if he thought about putting Wainwright back on the hill in the tenth. But his hand was forced when Brendan Ryan singled and Wainwright couldn't go from first to third.

In comes Cesar Izturis, who can do nothing but run.