ST. LOUIS — Adam Wainwright earned his 200th win, pitching seven innings of four-hit ball in a vintage performance as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 on Monday night.
It was the longest outing this season for the 42-year-old Wainwright (5-11), who struck out three and walked two. He has won consecutive starts — both against first-place teams — after going 0-10 with a 10.72 ERA over his previous 11 games between June 24 and Sept. 7.
The right-hander became the 38th pitcher in NL history to reach 200 wins, and the 24th major leaguer to achieve the milestone since 2000.
He’s the third pitcher in Cardinals history to reach 200 wins (Bob Gibson, Jesse Haines). He’s also the fifth active pitcher to reach the mark (Justin Verlander, Zack Greinke, Max Scherzer, Clayton Kershaw); Johnny Cueto (144) and Gerrit Cole (143) are next on the wins list.
Willson Contreras homered off Freddy Peralta (12-9) in the fourth. Milwaukee lost its second straight and its magic number to clinch the NL Central remained at seven. The Brewers hold a six-game lead over the Chicago Cubs with 12 to play.
John King induced a double play in the eighth and Ryan Helsley worked 1 1/3 innings for his 12th save in 16 opportunities.
Wainwright got Carlos Santana to ground into a pair of double plays and left to a standing ovation from the crowd of 33,176 after pitching around a leadoff single by Mark Canha in the seventh.
Wainwright’s first strikeout of the game, against Rowdy Tellez, was the 2,200th of his career. His last two punchouts moved him past David Wells for 65th on the all-time list.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.