(SportsNetwork.com) - The St. Louis Cardinals are holding their collective breath as they wait for the MRI results of ace Adam Wainwright's injured Achilles and will begin an 11-game homestand Monday with the first of four straight games versus the Philadelphia Phillies at Busch Stadium.
The Cardinals just placed Wainwright on the 15-day disabled list and he was hurt in the fifth inning of Saturday's game against Milwaukee after taking a swing at the plate. He popped up and started to run toward first when the injury occurred.
"I thought I got hit by something," Wainwright said. "If you look at the replay, I kind of get out of the box and I look back thinking, 'Gosh, the catcher's mask must have hit me. The bat must have hit me or something.'"
Wainwright was helped off the field and was in a walking boot after the contest. He is expected to undergo further tests on Monday when the Cardinals return to St. Louis. The Cardinals are calling it a left Achilles and left ankle injury. If it is a serious Achilles injury, the right-hander could be sidelined for a while -- possibly the remainder of the season.
With or without Wainwright, the show must go on for the Cardinals, who went 4-2 on a recent trip through Washington and Milwaukee. They were going for a sweep of the Brewers this weekend, but dropped a 6-3 decision Sunday.
Lance Lynn was tagged for six runs and 10 hits in five innings.
"I didn't get the job done, plain and simple. I've got to be better than that," Lynn said. "It's just get people out when it's time to get them out and I wasn't able to do it when I was supposed to today."
Mark Reynolds homered, Jon Jay had three hits and scored a run, and both Jhonny Peralta and Matt Adams added two hits and an RBI for St. Louis, which had won four in a row and nine of 10 games.
The Cardinals, who are scheduled to host the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs on this residency, will hand the ball to John Lackey Monday night. Lackey is 1-0 with a 4.34 ERA in three starts and didn't have his best stuff the last time out in a 7-5 win at Washington on Wednesday. He did not figure into the outcome and gave up a season-high five runs and eight hits in 5 2/3 frames.
Lackey, a right-hander, fired seven shutout innings in a 4-0 win versus Milwaukee on April 16. In five career starts against the Phillies, Lackey has a 2-3 mark and a 3.38 ERA.
The Phillies went 3-3 on their homestand versus Miami and Atlanta, and will play the next 10 games on the road against St. Louis, Miami and Atlanta.
Philadelphia took two of three from the Braves this weekend and recorded a 5-4 victory in Sunday's rubber match. Ryan Howard hit a three-run homer in the first inning and Ben Revere gave the Phillies the lead for good with an RBI triple in the fifth. Freddy Galvis had three hits and two runs scored.
Jerome Williams got the win in the start and yielded three runs across 6 2/3 innings of work. Closer Jonathan Papelbon allowed a home run in the ninth and settled down to pick up his fourth save. Kelly Johnson flied out to Revere in deep left field to end the game.
Howard has homered in back-to-back games with five RBI in that span.
"That's baseball," Howard said. "You just continue to go out there and swing. I feel like I've been swinging it well. The results may not necessarily show, but it's all about how you are feeling with the swings. Eventually, they will drop."
The Phillies will send Cole Hamels to the mound Monday and he is still searching for that elusive first win of the season. Hamels is 0-2 with a 3.75 earned run average through four starts and did not factor in the outcome of last Wednesday's 6-1 loss to Miami, charged with only one unearned run and five hits in six innings.
Hamels will make his second road start of the season and the left-hander was hammered in Washington on April 16, when he allowed five runs in six innings. Hamels has faced St. Louis 11 times (all starts) in his career, going 2-4 with a 3.25 ERA in 69 1/3 innings.
Philadelphia was 4-3 against St. Louis last season.
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