One of Cardinals pitching coach Mike Maddux’s mantras this season as he tries to nurse his staff through 162 games rather than the shortened 60-game season of last year, is, “Honor the off day.”
The Cardinals have two of those scheduled the rest of the season, on Sept. 16 and Sept. 27 and, ordinarily, those days would be a help to such pitchers as 40-year-old Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals’ ace.
But, instead of “honoring the off day,” the Cardinals will be honoring Wainwright. Manager Mike Shildt said there was a brief exchange with the 15-game winner about his workload the rest of the season and Wainwright quickly assured Shildt and Maddux that he didn’t need any more off days other than his regularly scheduled four between starts.