On May 24, 2006, a young pitcher named Adam Wainwright entered the game for the St. Louis Cardinals at Oracle Park in San Francisco.
But interestingly, it wasn’t the right-hander’s pitching that ended up being the storyline for that game.
It would in fact be his hitting.
Wainwright took his first career at-bat on that day and crushed a solo home run on the first pitch he saw in the top of the fifth inning.
Ultimately, the Cardinals ended up winning that game by a final score of 10-4, and Wainwright earned his second career win.
On Twitter, a Cardinals fan posted a video of the moment Wainwright hit his first big-league home run.
#OTD 2006 – Swinging on the first pitch in his first major league at-bat, Adam Wainwright homers in the fifth inning of the Cardinals 10-4 win over San Francisco at AT&T Park. #STLCards pic.twitter.com/gCFEzdG0F9
— Augie Nash (@AugieNash) May 24, 2023
Wainwright went on to play an instrumental role in helping the Cardinals reach the postseason in 2006.
He took the closer’s job after Jason Isringhausen went on the injured list.
All he did was close out the NLDS, NLCS, and World Series, becoming a St. Louis legend in the process.
He even struck out Carlos Beltran looking on a wicked curveball in Game 7 of the NLCS.
Years later, Wainwright is the last member of that team still present on the Cardinals roster.
Now a starting pitcher, he is three wins away from reaching 200 for his career.
He has won two World Series rings with the Cardinals and has been a steady presence in their rotation since all the way back in 2007.
But on this day in 2006, the right-hander made some impressive and unforeseen history at the plate against the San Francisco Giants.
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