St. Louis Cardinals’ pitcher Adam Wainwright season in doubt due to injury
The St. Louis Cardinals will have to face another blow before the upcoming 2011 Major League Baseball season, as their starting pitcher Adam Wainwright may require surgery on his right elbow. The team’s Dr. Lewis Yocum, after examining the results of testing,
has commented that the 29-year-old Wainwright will probably need to have surgery. The Cardinals’ Nick Punto will also have to leave the camp for eight to twelve weeks due to a sports hernia that will require surgery.
The 6ft 7in runner-up player for the last year’s National League CY Young Award complained soreness in his right shoulder on Monday. The next day he was directed to go back to St. Louis, as the team trainer examined him and felt his situation critical. Brian
Bartow, the spokesperson for team anticipated that the new findings would be publicised in Thursday afternoon in their news conference.
Early Wednesday morning, General Manager for the Cardinals John Mozeliak considered the situation as discouraging for the right-hander. Mozeliak was nearly ready to break the Tommy John surgery news when he stopped himself and commented, “I don’t want to
speculate, but obviously ligament damage, that’s usually what it results in.”
The injury has created a hole in the Cardinals’ line-up, which includes Kyle Lohse, Jake Westbrook, Chris Carpenter and Jaime Garcia. All of these players have gone through the Tommy John surgery in their careers.
It’s going to be tough to replace a guy who wins 20 games, but you never know,” first baseman Albert Pujols, said. “One of these young kids could step up like Jaime did last year.”
Last year was memorable for Wainwright, as he stood second in the Cy Young Award behind the Philadelphia Phillies’ Roy Halladay, but he managed to make a name in the All-Star selection for the first time in his career. He set 20-11 with 2.42 Earned Run Average
last season and led all the pitchers with his 463, 1-3 innings during the past two seasons.
It seems as if the Manager La Russa is not ready to believe Wainwrights’ elimination from the season, as he related this injury to minor issues. The Cardinals will have a lot of work to do, if they are to overcome the gaps left by all the injuries to their
players. It will be interesting to see how they adapt as the regular season is right around the corner.
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