Welcome to the 200-win club, Adam Wainwright! In one of the last scheduled starts of his decorated MLB career, Wainwright reaches a long-awaited milestone.

Wainwright and the Cardinals defeated the NL Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers 1-0 for Waino’s 200th career win. Wainwright allowed four hits and struck out three in seven innings.

With the victory, Wainwright becomes just the third pitcher in history to win at least 200 games with the St. Louis Cardinals and just the sixth active hurler to reach 200 victories.

One day past reaching precisely 18 years of service time in the majors and one start away from possibly reaching that elusive 199th career win, Cardinals veteran Adam Wainwright came one pitch, maybe one play away from a briefer fifth inning.

But this is the 2023 Cardinals.

Whatever can go wrong will go worse.

The two narrative threads of these late-season Cardinals — their losing season and Wainwright’s quest for a winning finish — tightened Tuesday night into a rope around their ankles and tugged them ever deeper into the standings, ever faster into an undertow of frustration. A 6-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park dropped the Cardinals to 17 games beneath .500 for the first time this season. They’re 0-5 in Pittsburgh this season with one game remaining there. A sideways fifth inning meant Wainwright would go a ninth consecutive start without a win, two months and counting since win No. 198….

“It’s been a weird year. It’s been a funky year. We haven’t had a year like this since I’ve been here,” Wainwright said. “If you have only one of these every 18, that’s not a terrible ratio. I know everyone in here — it’s just driving them crazy. It’s driving me crazy. It’s not how I wanted to go out.”