Bob Nightengale

USA TODAY Sports

ST. LOUIS - We fall in love with the radar gun, gushing over kids who throw in the triple digits, giving them more hype than a Kardashian wedding.

Didn't we learn our lesson not paying enough attention to Greg Maddux, who'll be inducted into the Hall of Fame this summer?

Well, we're doing it again, overlooking one of the greatest shows in baseball.

The name is Adam Wainwright.

There might not be a better pitcher in the game. He just doesn't have the hardware or the promotional gimmicks to win it.

That might be changing.

Wainwright, who has won 19 or more games in three seasons and twice finished runner-up in Cy Young Award balloting, is putting on a pitching clinic. He threw 17 scoreless innings last week and heads into Friday's start against the San Francisco Giants with a 20-inning scoreless streak.

"I'm not naïve to the fact that I'm pitching well right now," Wainwright told USA TODAY Sports, "but I don't believe I'm hot. I mean, the way I feel now, I feel like I can pitch like this all of the time. I'm doing things with my pitches that I've never done before in my life."

Wainwright, 8-2 with a major league-leading 1.67 ERA, won't light up the radar gun with his 93-mph fastball, but he'll baffle the game's greatest hitters.

Wainwright, who will throw any pitch in any count, is altering his delivery and arm angle in the middle of a pitch, leaving hitters clueless.

"I love watching Wainwright pitch," Hall of Famer Bob Gibson said. "You want to see a true pitcher? Watch this guy."

Last week, Wainwright threw a one-hit shutout against the Arizona Diamondbacks, permitting two baserunners. Five days later, he threw eight scoreless innings against the Cincinnati Reds, equaling a career-high 12 strikeouts. He has pitched at least seven scoreless innings in five starts this season.

"I'm having more fun than I've ever had in this game," said Wainwright, 32. "I'm having fun mixing and matching. It's like I'm playing chess out there."

"There are games that he'll just be floating out there," said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, a former catcher, "and then all of a sudden he'll do something dramatically different with his timing. You'll see him stop. Or he'll pause midway through his delivery. Or he'll do a high leg kick and hold it.

"You don't know what's coming next."

Wainwright is lethal with all of his pitches, throwing them to both sides of the plate. Sinker. Cutter. Curveball. Two-seam fastball. They are all working to perfection. He has thrown 33 changeups this year, according to statistician Bill Chuck, and has yet to give up a hit.

He's merciless with a two-strike count, yielding a .164 batting average, and with two outs he buries hitters (.128). The later the game, the better he gets. He has faced 54 hitters in the seventh inning or later this year and has given up three singles and a double.

"You will see him throw one way to the same hitter," Matheny said, "when there's two outs and nobody on. If he comes up again with guys on base, he'll throw radically different, and the hitters will be seeing pitches they never saw before.

"He reminds you of Maddux, because he makes it look effortless."

Just ask New York Yankees catcher Brian McCann, who has a .208 career batting average against Wainwright from his days with the Atlanta Braves.

"He's tough, man," McCann said. "You just admire him so much. Every single year, he's putting up 200 innings, winning 15 to 20 games and is in the Cy Young hunt. He's the definition of a true No. 1. And he's just getting better and better."

If you listen to Wainwright, he's got no choice. There's too much video now available for hitters. Too many detailed scouting reports. Too much familiarity between divisional opponents.

"Dave Duncan used to get on me all of the time because I was always working on something,'' says Wainwright of the former Cardinals' pitching coach guru. "But having that constant search, always tinkering on stuff, has led me to being able to do different things.

"Now, I can throw something to any quadrant of the strike zone with one pitch, turn around, and pitch to the same location with three other pitches.

"There have even been times this year when I faced a guy that everything I planned, even to the exact foul ball that was hit, took place just the way I thought would happen.''

Close your eyes, and for a minute, you'd think it was Maddux talking.

"That's the ultimate compliment,'' Wainwright says, "to be compared to Maddux.

"Let me win about 255 more games and four Cy Young's, and then we can really talk.''