"Defying Age"; Adam Wainwright's Continued Dominance in the MLB at 40 Years Old

Want some crazy stats? 

The St. Louis Cardinals set a pretty insane record on Thursday. 

For the Cardinals on Thursday...

• 40-year-old Adam Wainwright threw seven shutout innings, with seven strikeouts, three hits and zero walks. 
• 40-year-old Yadier Molina threw out the only Colorado Rockies runner trying to steal. 
• 42-year-old Albert Pujols had five RBIs, on a grand slam and an RBI single. 

Of course, no other team in MLB history has ever done that. 

Albert Pujols hit a pinch-hit grand slam and Adam Wainwright pitched 7 scoreless innings today.

The Cardinals are the 1st team in MLB history to have a 40-year-old hit a grand slam and another 40-year-old throw at least 7 shutout IP in the same game, according to @EliasSports. pic.twitter.com/8HYm46qkNd

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 18, 2022

We're going to focus solely on Adam Wainwright for the remainder of this article, however. 

As mentioned previously, Wainwright threw seven shutout innings Thursday against the Rockies. His start before that? Oh, nothing special, just nine innings of one-run baseball with eight strikeouts. 

At 40 years old, Wainwright continues to dominate as a starting pitcher. In 2022, he has posted a 3.11 ERA, 1.16 WHIP and a 123:39 K/BB ratio across 150 innings. Insane. 

Wainwright has seriously considered retirement each of the past few seasons, but has not done so. Usually, a player does this when their playing ability is significantly on the downtrend. That's not the case with Wainwright. His last three seasons have been much better than the four previous. 

Wainwright turns 41 in 10 days and, for his career, he has a 3.34 ERA, 1.21 WHIP and a 2,127:680 K/BB ratio. He has an all-time record of 193-113. 

What a career it's been for Adam Wainwright and, if this is his last season, it's been an absolute treat to watch him dominate all 17 seasons of his career. 

Photo Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports