TOWER GROVE — For the moment, St. Louis Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright pulled ahead in wins. On Tuesday night, he set a new career high with his 15th victory of the season, and he’s the first National League pitcher and the second pitcher in the majors to reach 15. But, as he said after the game, he’ll have to keep his “sprinting shoes on” if he plans to stay ahead.

Chris Carpenter is coming.

“I like the push,” Wainwright said. “Seems like he’s going to win every time. If I want to stay ahead of him I better do it, too.”

In his last start, Carpenter pulled into a tie with Wainwright atop the NL with 14 wins. He did so despite having missed five weeks with an oblique strain. Both are on pace to be Cy Young Award candidates — especially if they keep up their current streaks of more than 10 games with sub-2.00 ERA and less than two losses. But they are not alone in their stellar runs, not in their clubhouse.

"Ghidorah" lacks the marketing punch of MV3 or "Hard Nine".

One theory about how a team can successfully navigate October is to ride a three-headed monster through the three series. If a team has three bona fide starters — three near-aces, if not all aces — then it can claim the edge in almost every series it pitches. Those three pitchers can be known quantities going into October, like Josh Beckett and Curt Schilling back in 2007, or they can emerge like Jon Lester that same season or, say, Jeff Weaver in 2006. It’s not a prerequisite for success in October, but a three-headed monster sure has teeth in the postseason. The Cardinals have defined their three. It’s August.

In addition to Carpenter and Wainwright, tonight’s starter, Joel Pineiro is keeping pace.

Since July 1, the Cardinals are 27-3 in games started by their Three-Headed Monster. The trio of starters has combined for the equivalent of a season in that span, making 30 starts and pitching 220 1/3 innings. Combined they are 22-2 with a 1.88 ERA and 163 strikeouts. They’ve allowed a 1.04 WHIP.

The tale of their individual streaks is where today’s 10@10 starts …

1. The only blip in the past two months of work from the trio of steady starters for the Cardinals was Pineiro’s belch in New York, that seven-run thud at Citi Field. That speed bump is all that keeps Pineiro from echoing Carpenter’s and Wainwright’s active streaks of starts double-digit starts with a sub-2.00 ERA. Seven of the 19 runs Pineiro has allowed in the previous nine starts came in that one game. If he had, say, done what he usually does against the Mets and allowed just two, he’d have a 1.99 ERA, which fits snugly with his colleagues. Moreover, he’s have the chance to match their double-digit streaks with tonight’s start against Houston. Still, each member of the threesome is on a strong run:

CC … 10 starts … 9-0 (Cardinals 9-1) … 75 ip, 69 h, 58 k, 13 w, 1.92 ERA

AW … 12 starts … 7-3 (Cardinals 9-3) … 89 ip, 78 h, 73 k, 18 w, 1.31 ERA

JP … 9 starts … 6-0 (Cardinals 9-0) … 63 1/3 ip, 57 h, 37 k, 6 w, 2.70 ERA

2. The setup was there, but the vote spoiled that. With Pineiro starting tonight, the plan was to piggyback on yesterday’s poll with a Pineiro-related poll today. But more than 7,000 clicks yesterday not only answered resoundingly in favor of Pineiro yesterday, but really answered today’s planned poll as well. Of 7,500 votes, 46 percent of readers said Pineiro should be the player the Cardinals re-sign first; of 7,000 votes, 24 percent said Pineiro will be the first player re-signed. Sort of makes any question about how many starts readers think he’ll have next season academic. So, a quick shift:

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3. Not since, well, maybe spring training 2007, have the Cardinals’ starters been on a roll like this. Back then, the Cardinals put together a run of 22 1/3 innings plus. Earlier this season, three Cardinals starters combined to hold the Chicago Cubs to one run in 22 2/3 innings. But tonight, the rotation takes a 22-inning scoreless streak into the game:

• Kyle Lohse’s final two innings Friday. (2)
• Carpenter’s seven innings Saturday. (7)
• John Smoltz’s five innings Sunday. (5)
• Wainwright’s eight innings Tuesday. (8)

4. Which explains … One of the few Cardinals who has been hitting even as the team has cruised to a 6-2 record in its previous eight games is shortstop Brendan Ryan. His one-out single Tuesday night and his race from first to home helped create the only run in Wainwright’s victory. The single also extended his hitting streak to seven games. Ryan is batting .407 during his streak with three extra-base hits and a .448 on-base percentage. Earlier this season, Ryan had a nine-game hitting streak with a .324 average. In his past 15 games, Ryan is hitting .392 with only seven strikeouts.

5. According to Elias Sports Bureau, Tuesday was the second time in his career that Albert Pujols had provided the only run in a 1-0 victory.  Elias makes the point that two in a career is actually quite a few by pointing out that a trio of Yankees (for comparison only) don’t have a single 1-0 game in their career where they’ve provided the lone lone. Not Derek Jeter and not Alex Rodriguez. The active leader, according to Elias, is Gary Sheffield with six.

6. Top pick and instant Washington star Stephen Strasburg headlines the group of players headed to the Arizona Fall League, according to the rosters released yesterday. The Cardinals will share the Surprise Rafters with the Yankees, the Rangers, the Mets and the Royals. (That alone offers one intriguing twist as Ian Kennedy, a former Yankees starter and a Cardinals draft pick years ago, will be on the team.) The Cardinals are sending eight players to the Arizona. Several are merit-based. A few are makeup assignments. Catcher Bryan Anderson, outfielder Daryl Jones, and pitcher Mike Parisi will be going to Arizona to makeup for lost playing time due to injury this season. (Anderson, by the way, did not have the shoulder surgery he was scheduled for and opted, at the urging of team doctors, to rehab his way back from shoulder trouble.) Tyler Henley, a merit-based assignment, will be on the “taxi” squad, which limits his playing time but puts him on the roster in case of an injury replacement. Second baseman Daniel Descalso is also going to Arizona. As far as pitchers go, I asked Jeff Luhnow if the Arizona assignments were preludes to major-league spring training invitations. Luhnow said they were not related, though it’s hard to look at the names and not wonder: Parisi, Lance Lynn, David Kopp and power-armed closer Adam Reifer are headed to Arizona.

7. FARMNIK REPORT: Like its major-league parent club, the Class AAA Memphis squad managed just three hits in a pitching duel with Round Rock on Tuesday. Again this season, first-round pick Adam Ottavino was a tough-luck loser. Ottavino slipped to 7-11 this season after a 1-0 loss to Round Rock. The righthander seven innings and allowed one run — it was unearned — on four hits and two walks. He struck out three. Ottavino lowered his ERA to 4.36 in his first tour of Triple-A, and this month he’s 4-1 with a 2.97 ERA. In his previous 10 starts, he’s struck out 52 batters in 65 innings and posted a 3.32 ERA. … First baseman Matthew Adams hit two home runs for Batavia in a 7-3 victory. Adams’ third and fourth home runs of the season raised his average to .375 at the short-season level. … Both Palm Beach and Quad Cities won in extra innings Tuesday. Palm Beach won, 5-4. Tommy Pham drove in the winning run in the 10th inning. It was his third hit of the game. Blake King got the victory in relief. Reifer blew the save by allowing an inherited runner to score. … Quad Cities scored three times in top of the 12th for a 9-6 victory at Peoria. Xavier Scruggs had a home run and four RBIs. The decisive blow came from third baseman Richard Racobaldo, whose two run homer in the 12th inning helped set the final score. Racobaldo is hitting .348 in 54 games spread over two levels this season. The Mount Olive College alum has 23 extra-base hits in his 72 total hits. … Ryde Rodriguez had three hits for Quad Cities. … Chris Notti improved to 4-1 with a win for Johnson City. He struck out four and walked none in his five innings Tuesday as the JC Cards won, 3-1. … Lynn improved to 11-4 for Springfield. He pitched six innings, walked four, allowed three hits and struck out three. He allowed one run, and he has a 1.69 ERA in his previous 10 starts for the S-Cards.

8. Ryan Franklin converted his 33rd save in his 35th opportunity, and he continues to inch up the rankings when it comes to Cardinals’ closer efficiency. The save Tuesday snapped a tie with Jason Isringhausen, and Franklin now has the second-best conversion percentage of any of the Cardinals seven 30-save closers:

• Tom Henke … 94.7 percent in 1995 (36 for 38)
• Ryan Franklin … 94.3 percent in 2009 (33 for 35)
• Jason Isringhausen … 94.1 percent in 2007 (32 for 34)

9. In the wake of a rout at the hands of the league’s worst team, we now go to our Chicago bureau for Cubs in Chaos, where Chicago Tribune baseball sage Dave van Dyck offers up reasons to believe and reasons to doubt that the Cubs can turn things around with this pivotal 10-game home stand … Where Mizzou grad Paul Sullivan writes that Jim Riggleman believes Lou Piniella “will survive” the early fall. … Where Sun-Times scribe Gordon Wittenmyer decrees that Carlos Zambrano’s return from the disabled list was the beginning of something: The End. … And, then this, where Sun-Times quick-hitter columnist Elliott Harris wonders if free-agent-to-be Tony La Russa could be the next manager of the Cubs. Yep. Brace for the deluge of Cardinals Nation, Mr. Harris.

10. Years before John Smoltz actually joined the Cardinals he had a victory for the Cardinals. Remember the day there was the Tomahawk Chop at Busch Stadium? That was because of Smoltz. The righthander started the final game of the 2006 season for the Atlanta Braves and pitched them to a victory against Houston. That win clinched the division for the 83-win Cardinals and shoved them onto their World Series way. “That was our playoff game,” Smoltz said Tuesday. “And here we were not going.” Smoltz said he saw the importance of the game — granted, for another team — and went into Bobby Cox’s office and said he was going to pitch, on turn. Smoltz, who finished seventh in Cy Young voting that season, pitched six shutout innings against Houston and his win meant the Cardinals division win, meant there wasn’t a need for a makeup game the next day and possibly a playoff game the day after that. Pitching for Atlanta, Smoltz won a game for the Cardinals.

And that’s why first-base coach Dave McKay sought Smoltz out last week and gave him a hearty handshake and a thank you. Sensing Smoltz’s question before he asked it, McKay explained: “I make sure to always shake the hand of someone who helped us win a World Series.”

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