Starting pitchers have plenty to prove in Game Five
By Larry Fine ST. LOUIS (Reuters) - Adam Wainwright of the Cardinals and Boston's Jon Lester will reprise their Game One duel in Monday's crucial fifth game of the World Series with both pitchers going in with something to prove at Busch Stadium. Wainwright was out of sorts in the opener of the best-of-seven at Fenway Park, and the St. Louis ace said he was eager for another chance after the Red Sox prevailed 8-1 to begin the Fall Classic. "I honestly don't know why my mechanics were as bad as they were, my delivery was off as much as it was," said Wainwright, a 19-game winner in the regular season, who was charged with five runs, three earned, in five innings in the opening game. "But I feel like I've put a lot of good reps in front of the mirror, and watching film and feeling my delivery again, learning the basics all over again. "I feel like I've made a lot of good adjustments to be ready for this next game to throw some quality pitches." Lester threw an abundance of quality pitches in his masterful Game One start, throwing shutout ball for 7-2/3 innings. After the game, Lester dealt with accusations posed by a Cardinals minor leaguer on Twitter, who posted a picture he said demonstrated that the Red Sox hurler had cheated by using a foreign substance in his glove to affect the ball. Lester explained that he applies the rosin bag to his glove before he pitches to counteract his profusive sweating during games and give him a good grip on the ball, and Major League Baseball officials said they did not think there was wrongdoing. Boston's starting pitcher would like nothing better than to repeat his dominant performance under the pressure of added scrutiny in Game Five. "If people want to know how bad I sweat, that's fine," he said, drawing laughter from reporters after being put under the microscope after the accusation. "I think we've covered that pretty well over the past couple of days. I've gotten a lot of crap from my friends and my wife on that one." Lester said he would simply concentrate on the job at hand. "I'm sure there's going to be focus on my glove and focus on my hands and what I'm doing, but I've got to worry about the Cardinals. "If I'm worried about what people are looking at, I'm worried about the wrong things. I'm going to go out and pitch my game." (Reporting by Larry Fine, Editing by Gene Cherry) (This story was refiled to fix typo in the headline)
