ST. LOUIS — Adam Wainwright was hungry. Happy, but hungry, and maybe also a little weary. Wainwright, the ace of the St. Louis Cardinals, had spoken for a while in the visitors’ clubhouse at PNC Park on Monday, trying to explain the spectacular emergence of another protégé, Michael Wacha, on the national stage.

They just keep coming — young pitchers named Wacha and Miller, Kelly and Rosenthal, Siegrist and Maness and Martinez — one after another, like an ever-flowing spigot of baseball holy water. All teams crave cheap, homegrown pitching. How do the Cardinals succeed where others fail?

“No, I’m not talking about that,” Wainwright said, politely. “It’s a trap question. We like what we’ve got going.”

With that, Wainwright smiled and said he had to eat. The Cardinals had places to go: to the airport, and then back home for the decisive Game 5 of this National League division series against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night. Wacha had forced the finale by taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning of a 2-1 victory in Game 4, one start after missing a no-hitter by one out in late September.