Cardinals: Did Mike Shildt pull Adam Wainwright too early?

St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt pulled Adam Wainwright in the sixth inning of the NL Wild Card game against the Dodgers. Was it too early?

Locked in a 1-1 battle in the NL Wild Card game, the managerial decisions for the Cardinals and Dodgers were under a microscope on Wednesday.

Dave Roberts pulled his starter Max Scherzer, much to the pitcher’s chagrin, in the fifth inning with positive results.

It was Mike Shildt’s turn to face a tough decision in the sixth inning with Adam Wainwright. Ultimately, he decided to take Wainwright off the mound and replace him with Luis Garcia.

Did Mike Shildt pull Adam Wainwright too early?

It didn’t look particularly good for a second there, but ultimately Garcia paid off Shildt’s faith in him by getting out of the inning without giving up the go-ahead run.

That means Shildt was right to pull Wainwright, who had already thrown 95 pitches. He wasn’t going to last much longer and had already given up a home run to Justin Turner.

Both Scherzer and Wainwright out of the game, the tense NL Wild Card matchup landed in the hands of the bullpen. The managers got their first big decisions of the game right, but the losing side will undoubtedly have questions to answer in the end.