Wacha gave up two earned runs on three hits over five innings in Monday's 6-3 Grapefruit League win over the Astros. He struck out four.
Wacha continued his stellar spring with his longest outing to date, although he finally surrendered his first runs over four starts in the third inning. Two came on Colin Moran's two-run double down the right-field line, but Wacha bounced back to retire the next seven hitters to wrap up his afternoon. The right-hander has generated a 1.38 ERA through 13 innings and looks much closer to the pitcher that notched a career-high 17 wins in 2015 than the one that endured an injury-riddled 7-7 season last year. The ability to get hitters out with his full arsenal of pitches has been especially key to his success thus far, a trend that continued Monday. "When he has his stuff like he had today," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, "I mean, I saw a strikeout with his fastball, which was really good, I saw a strikeout with his curveball, saw a strikeout with his changeup, saw a strikeout with his cutter. Those are all good signs. You can tell everything is right."