St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright allowed four runs over five-plus innings in his season debut against the Detroit Tigers on Saturday after being activated from the injured list.
Wainwright, starting his 19th and what he said will be his final major league season, struck out five and walked none.
The 41-year-old right-hander pitched two-hit ball for four innings, then allowed Detroit to tie the score 3-3 in the fifth on RBI singles by Eric Haase and Riley Greene around Zack McKinstry’s sacrifice fly.
Wainwright left with a 5-4 lead after Nick Maton doubled and scored on Spencer Torkelson’s single in the sixth.
The second-oldest active pitcher in the major leagues, Wainwright missed the first 33 games while recovering from a groin injury sustained when working out with the U.S. during the World Baseball Classic.
Wainwright went 11-12 with a 3.72 ERA last season, but finished 2-3 with a 7.22 ERA in his final six starts allowing at least four runs in five of those six outings. He did not pitch in the Cardinals’ wild-card series against Philadelphia.
“I do tend to think the way the season ended led even more to me coming back,” Wainwright said when he announced he was returning on Oct. 26, “because I just didn’t like that. I don’t like going out like that. I wasn’t performing like I know I should have been performing. Wasn’t helping the team like I knew I should have been helping the team. We didn’t win.”
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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