TOWER GROVE — If there is a game so far in this season when Adam Wainwright deleted all of the fancy adjectives we’ve been attaching to ace in front of his name — de facto, budding, pro tempore, fill-in, stand-in and, my personal favorite, proxy — and just became the Cardinals’ ace it was his 126-pitch start Saturday against Houston.

He didn’t have his best stuff. He wasn’t dominant.

But he won with what he…

SOUTH GRAND — Starting with a possible trade partner that probably doesn’t have what the Cardinals are looking for and ending with a question about the chances of a fan-favorite outfielder trying on an infielder’s glove, this week’s edition of the mailbag is loaded with all manner of things middle infield.

Oh, and there is also an advocacy of a four-man rotation.

Reliever Russ Springer is back. Rico Washington gave everyone a great story. And…

TOWER GROVE – The PostCards inbin was overrun with spam and the Cyrillic alphabet – who knew four years of Russian would help me wade through questions for a baseball mailbag? спасибо Большое. One email that had the subject line: “Thanks Houston/We Have Liftoff!”

Thought for sure that was a love letter to Brandon Backe. But no.

It was a religious group’s mass email with a space travel pun. Houston? Liftoff? Getit? Dah. (Just wait until…

GRAND CENTER — Even with that strike out of Ryan Ludwick to end the seventh inning, it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Wandy Rodriguez is throwing this kind of game at Minute Maid Park. He thrives at the place. Has his whole career, but especially last season.

The Astros went 11-4 in his 15 starts at home last season, and his 2.94 ERA put him in select company. The rankings in the National…

TOWER GROVE — The Cardinals jet off on their first road trip of the season having let so few of their opposing hitters take flight at all this season. Much has been made of the Cardinals rotation’s sub-1.00 ERA through six games and the staff as a whole has an ERA of 1.83, better than every team in baseball save the LA Dodgers and their 1.70.

That’s the macro picture. The micro is even more…

JUPITER, Fla. — Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse didn’t have his best stuff Thursday, but he had enough stuff to continue the club’s sizzling close to its Florida schedule and he had the kind of stuff he’d take in any regular-season start.

Lohse worked five innings against Florida and pushed the Cardinals halfway to a 2-0 victory against the Marlins on Thursday. The Cardinals finished Grapefruit League play on a seven-game winning streak and 12-1-1 over…

JUPITER, Fla. — Still bothered by muscle discomfort in his ribcage, Cardinals shortstop Brendan Ryan will remain in Florida after the team leaves for its two-game trip to Springfield, Mo. The club is packing a couple different options as insurance.

Ryan had to cut short his work in the batting cages Wednesday, manager Tony La Russa disclosed Thursday morning. Ryan is allowed to participate in activities “as tolerated”, and he had no hesitation during baserunning drills this morning. But…

JUPITER, Fla. — The end is nigh.

The Cardinals look to leave Florida on a weeklong winning streak with only one stop and two games between them and the regular-season opening Monday at Busch Stadium. Most of the decisions have been made. Only two questions remain for the roster:

1. Is Brendan Ryan healthy enough to be active?
2. Anthony Reyes or Kelvin Jimenez for the last bullpen spot?

Looks like both of those questions will be answered in…

JUPITER, Fla. — He crossed up catcher Yadier Molina once with a fastball when Molina expected a slider, but otherwise Cardinals starter Kyle Lohse showed he’s on pace to make a regular-season start after an abbreviated spring training.

“Go out there and break the ice,” Lohse said Saturday afternoon. “I wasn’t as sharp as one could expect. As a competitor, you want to be near perfect and I wasn’t that.”

But he was effective enough.

Lohse threw about 65 pitches,…

JUPITER, Fla. — A common practice this time of spring is plucking players from the minor-league camp to provide depth for the major-league games. Most often that minor leaguer comes in late in the games, if at all. Every so often, under special circumstances, that minor leaguer will start.

Today is one of those.

Wanting to give Rick Ankiel and Skip Schumaker a day off from the outfield, manager Tony La Russa fetched top prospect…