Asked about his assignment in Tuesday night's All-Star Game, holding onto a slender lead in a high-visibility, high-stakes game, Adam Wainwright grinned. He repeated the word "yeah" about three times. He laughed. Wainwright lives for situations like the one he faced on Tuesday. After the National League's offense rallied for three runs to take a 3-1 lead in the top of the seventh inning, which proved to be the final margin, National League manager Charlie Manuel summoned Wainwright to face the sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the American League's batting order. Things got a little hairy, but Wainwright never faltered. Wainwright was coming in the game regardless of whether the AL still led. But when he was handed a two-run lead, and the task of getting the "shutdown" inning, things got a lot more fun for him. "I told myself I was pitching the ninth inning in a one-run game," Wainwright said. "Nobody was going to score. I think that's the mentality you have to have to go out there and do the best you can. I made it interesting, but I sort of have a flair for the dramatic in those kinds of roles. I've done [that] in the past." http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp...news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl&partnerId=rss_stl
