Pitching with the poise and skill of a master, the Cardinals’ Michael Wacha capped his rookie season with a nearly unhittable showing.
Ten years ago, on Sept. 24, 2013, Wacha held the Nationals hitless until Ryan Zimmerman got a scratch single with two outs in the ninth.
The near no-hitter came in Wacha’s final appearance of the regular season and solidified a spot for him in the Cardinals’ starting rotation for the playoffs, where he gave an encore that was just as impressive.
Helping hand
In the June 2012 amateur draft, Wacha was chosen by the Cardinals in the first round with a pick given them as compensation for the Angels’ signing of free agent Albert Pujols.
A 6-foot-6 right-hander, Wacha was 9-1 with a 2.07 ERA in 16 starts for Texas A&M in 2012. After the Cardinals signed him, he pitched in 11 games in their farm system that summer.
Assigned to Class AAA Memphis in 2013, Wacha was projected to spend most of the season there, but when Cardinals starters Jaime Garcia and Jake Westbrook got injured in May, Wacha, 21, was called up.
In his debut, a start against the Royals on May 30, 2013, Wacha got a hit before he allowed one. He singled to center in his first big-league at-bat against Jeremy Guthrie in the second inning. Wacha retired the first 13 batters he faced before Lorenzo Cain doubled with one out in the fifth.
Mixing a fastball and changeup and throwing strikes, Wacha gave up two hits, no walks and left after seven innings with a 2-1 lead. The Royals rallied for three runs in the ninth against the relievers and won, 4-2. Boxscore
Two weeks later, Wacha got his first Cardinals win, beating the Mets, and then was sent back to Memphis. He returned to the Cardinals in August, pitched mostly in relief, got sent down again that month and was recalled in September.
The Cardinals, who entered September a game behind the first-place Pirates in the National League Central Division, made Wacha a starter for the stretch run.
Washington shutdown
With Wacha, 22, providing a lift, the Cardinals surged in September. They were atop the division, two games ahead with five left to play, when Wacha made his start against the Nationals on a Tuesday night at St. Louis.
The Nationals, managed by Davey Johnson, featured a lineup with Bryce Harper, Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman, but all were overmatched by Wacha. He retired the first 14 batters before Adam LaRoche reached on a Matt Carpenter error. Other than that, the Nationals managed only leadoff walks from Zimmerman in the seventh and LaRoche in the eighth.
“He was amazing, keeping the ball down, mixing it with the changeup,” Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “When you throw hard with the sinker he’s got, the movement, the changeup, it was hard for them.”
With the Cardinals ahead, 2-0, Wacha retired the first two batters in the ninth. Zimmerman was up next and he hit a high bouncer toward the mound. Wacha stretched and nicked the ball with his glove. Charging in from his shortstop position, Pete Kozma scooped the ball off the turf with his bare hand.
“I thought there was a real good chance we were going to see an unbelievable finish to an unbelievable game,” Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said to the Post-Dispatch.
With no time to set, Kozma hurried his throw and first baseman Matt Adams had to come off the bag to snare it as Zimmerman streaked across with a single.
Trevor Rosenthal relieved and got the final out, sealing the win. Boxscore and Video
Wacha finished the 2013 regular season with a 4-1 record and 2.78 ERA for the Cardinals. In five September starts, he was 2-1 with a 1.72 ERA.
Right stuff
The 2013 Cardinals (97-65) had the best record in the National League and were matched in the first round of the playoffs against a team with the third-best mark, the Pirates (94-68). During the season, the Pirates won 10 of 19 versus St. Louis.
In the playoffs for the first time in 21 years, the Pirates won two of the first three in the best-of-five series. With the Cardinals needing to win Game 4 at Pittsburgh to avoid elimination, Mike Matheny chose Wacha as the starting pitcher.
Making his first playoff appearance and pitching for the first time since his near no-hitter versus the Nationals, Wacha delivered another masterpiece. He held the Pirates hitless until the eighth, when Pedro Alvarez hit a solo home run.
Wacha went 7.1 innings and departed with a 2-1 lead. Carlos Martinez and Trevor Rosenthal came through in relief, sealing the win. Boxscore
Pirates right fielder Marlon Byrd, who struck out three times against Wacha, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “I feel like he’s the next coming of (Cardinals ace) Adam Wainwright. He knows how to pitch. He has that swagger.”
Wainwright told the Post-Dispatch, “Michael may be one of the most talented pitchers I’ve seen.”
Given new life by Wacha’s win, the Cardinals took advantage, prevailing in Game 5 and advancing to the next round against the Dodgers.
Top gun
Wacha dominated the Dodgers, winning Game 2 and the pennant-clinching Game 6. In both, he beat Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, who received the second of his three Cy Young awards in 2013.
Asked about Wacha, Chris Carpenter, who earned a Cy Young Award with the Cardinals in 2005 and was 3-0 for them in World Series games, said to the Los Angeles Times, “His maturity level is not normal for a kid that’s his age. It’s been a lot of fun to watch him rise to the occasion. Not only rise to the occasion, but wanting to be in the situation. It’s a tough spot to be when you’re 22 years old.”
In the 2013 World Series, Wacha was opposed by the Red Sox, who had his former American Legion teammate, third baseman Will Middlebrooks. They played together on the same team coached by Wacha’s father, Tom, in Texarkana, Texas. “He really didn’t start throwing hard until his senior year in high school,” Middlebrooks recalled to the Associated Press. “He wasn’t like a dominant pitcher.”
Wacha started and won Game 2 of the World Series, but lost Game 6 when the Red Sox clinched the championship.
For the 2013 postseason, Wacha had as many wins (four) for the Cardinals as he did for them in the regular season.
Reflecting on his debut year in the majors, Wacha told the Post-Dispatch in January 2014, “The goal was just try to win a ballgame for this team. It ended up being a pretty special year.”
In seven years with the Cardinals (2013-19), Wacha had a regular-season record of 59-39. Granted free agency after the 2019 season, he signed with the Mets.