Out in right field Saturday during batting practice, as teammates prepared for the evening’s game all around him, Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright took another literal step toward what he has insisted could be a return this season.
Wainwright, who had surgery in April to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon, had his final day of playing catch at 90 feet Saturday, and he’ll advance in the coming week to throwing at a distance of 120 feet. He stepped and threw, stepped and threw, and repeated that up to 40 times Saturday without hesitation or soreness in his left ankle.