Michael Wacha continued his comeback from a shoulder injury with his longest outing of the spring for the Cardinals on Friday.
Wacha pitched four and two thirds innings, allowing six hits and three runs, while striking out three.
Wacha missed the last two months of 2014 with a shoulder stress reaction. In two previous spring starts, he pitched a total of five innings.
"I don't look at him as anything but a healthy pitcher trying to get ready for the season," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, per MLB.com's Paul Hagen. "Last year ended exactly how we planned it, in that at midseason, he had something come up and we had to back off. That was just being extra precautionary so we could have him ready for spring this year. ... Apparently it's proven that that was a good thing."