WAINWRIGHT FIDDLES

With a liberal use of his new split-finger fastball and some fiddling with the shape of his curveball, Adam Wainwright threw four scoreless innings against Houston on Saturday and held the Astros to two hits and struck out two. Wainwright threw about 10 splits — more than he had in any game in his career, and he’s test-driving that pitch as a possible changeup alternative. At times during the start Wainwright also down-shifted his curveball to slower speeds and had it slide across the plate as opposed to drop over it.

The Astros’ second look at Wainwright produced some of the harder hits of the outing, but he contained the group that included Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and George Springer. “Big league hitters are a great measure of where your stuff’s at and how good you are,” Wainwright said. “They’ll tell you if you’re leaving the ball over the plate and not cutting it, sinking it like you should. Those barrels will let you know.”

REYES RELIEVER?