Adam Wainwright Tunes Up in Cardinals' Win over Braves; Zack Greinke, Adrian Gonzalez Lead Dodgers in Cactus League

Players of the Day for Saturday, March 21, 2015

Grapefruit League

Wainwright: 4IP 0R

There's a reason Cardinals' ace starter Adam Wainwright has won numerous awards and his team has been in the playoffs and won the World Series during his tenure: he's "money."

Wainwright continued tuning up for the regular season with four scoreless innings in the Cards' 1-0 win over the Braves. Though he did not get the win, and, maybe wasn't exactly as sharp as he'd like to be at this point - allowing four hits and a walk - Wainwright threw through the situations in which pitchers are paid to perform: with men on base, and came up aces. Wainwright fanned three.

Greinke: 6Ks

The Braves got just one more hit off three St. Louis relievers, and the Cardinals scored in the bottom of the ninth for the win, when Dean Anna drove in pinch-runner Charlie Tilson with none out, putting them at 8-7 and dropping the raves to 7-12 in Grapefruit League play. Kevin Siegrist pitched the ninth inning and received the win.

Cactus League

Gonzalez: 2 HR

The Dodgers have surged to the top echelon of the Cactus League standings and Saturday's 11-3 win over the Rangers shows they're just about ready for opening day.

Zack Greinke proved he will be an integral part of the Dodger pitching rotation, going four solid innings, allowing no runs on three hits and a walk, striking out six.

Adian Gonzalez had his sweet swing in a groove, belting out a pair of solo homers helping LA to an early lead.

Sure to be a big provider of runs for the Dodgers this year, Gonzalez comes off a 2104 campaign in which he knocked out 27 homers (6th in NL) and drove in 116 runs, the top-run-producer in the National League.