THE REDBIRD REVIEW
If that was Lance Lynn’s final start as a St. Louis Cardinal, he delivered a winning performance that personified all of the traits we’ve admired and enjoyed.
Lynn is a grizzly bear of a man. His intense competitiveness is sound-tracked by emphatic grunts, loud shouts, and the barking of R-rated curse words. This old pitcher yells at clouds, looks like a cast member of Sons of Anarchy and puts on a helluva show. Music fans of a certain age could watch Lynn pitch and have John Kay and Steppenwolf’s “Born To be Wild” playing in their heads. It fits.
Lynn somehow takes a four-seam fastball that doesn’t have as much sizzle and zing as it used to, but he’s determined to heave it past hitters, anyway. And he wins a robust share of those battles, limiting opponents to a .199 batting average on the four-seamer when they put the pitch in play.
Lynn’s four-seam fury was crackling again Tuesday night when the 37-year-old put the Pirates down during six innings of one-run saltiness and stubbornness. And the work shift led to a 3-1 win for the Cardinals. The Pirates had their moments against Lynn’s signature pitch, banging a double and a homer in nine at-bats that ended with the four-seamer. But that was OK. Lynn mixed in some other offerings, let out a few primal screams, and sent all but six of the club-wielding 23 Pirates back to the dugout.
If this is it for Lynn, if his Cardinals’ career is over, then he went out with style and success. The current version of Busch Stadium opened in 2006. The young Lynn pitched for the Cardinals from 2011 through 2017, then returned for a 2024 encore.
Among the men who worked at least 250 regular-season innings at the “new” Busch Stadium, Lynn’s considerable presence and talent made him one of the most accomplished Cardinal pitchers in this ballpark’s history.
Most Games Started at Busch: Adam Wainwright 215, Lynn 90, Miles Mikolas 83, Jaime Garcia 77, Michael Wacha 76.
Most Individual Wins at Busch: Wainwright 108, Lynn 46, Garcia 34, Chris Carpenter 32, Wacha 31.
Best Starter ERA at Busch: Carpenter 2.61, Lynn 2.88, Wainwright 2.97. Garcia 3.05, Jack Flaherty 3.23.
Best Individual Winning Percentage at Busch: Lynn .697, Wacha .689, Carpenter .681, Kyle Lohse .644, Jake Westbrook .625. (Waino is next at .624).
Most Strikeouts at Busch: Wainwright 816, Lynn 516, Carlos Martinez 455, Wacha 418, Mikolas 364.
Here’s a fantastic note from John Denton, who covers the Cardinals for MLB.com: “Incredibly, Lynn is 9-0 (at Busch) since July 4, 2017, and he has not lost at Busch Stadium in 21 consecutive starts – an NL mark that trails only the 22 straight starts without a loss by Clayton Kershaw at Dodger Stadium from 2018-19.
Lynn was a certified winner. From 2011 through 2015, the Cardinals won the 2011 World Series, two NL pennants, and went 5 for 5 in qualifying for the playoffs. During those seasons Lynn made 24 postseason appearances as a starter or reliever.
As a rookie in 2011, Lynn was a valuable piece of Tony La Russa’s postseason bullpen – appearing in 10 games and pitching to a 3.27 ERA. En route to the World Series title, the Cardinals were 7-3 when the 24-year old was tasked to provide relief in the pressure of October.
Lynn missed all of 2016 after undergoing elbow surgery. He was back with a complete season in 2018, then headed to the free-agent market. In hindsight, the Cardinals made a mistake in letting Lynn walk. But after six seasons – and time spent with the Twins, Yankees, Rangers, White Sox and Dodgers – Lynn came home in 2024.
Though sidelined by a knee injury that limited him to 23 starts, Lynn had a sturdy 3.84 ERA and the Cardinals were an impressive 15-8 when he started. Part of that record can be attributed to run support, but all along the Cardinals won a lot of games with Lynn making a start. During his entire career with the Cardinals, the team had a .577 winning percentage with Lynn as a regular-season starter.
If we go by Wins Above Replacement, only one St. Louis pitcher, Wainwright, has rolled up more WAR than Lynn since the start of 2011 (home or away.)
If we go back to 1959, Bob Gibson’s first season with the Cardinals, here are the top five individual win totals by a STL pitcher over the last 65-plus seasons:
- Bob Gibson 251
- Adam Wainwright 200
- Bob Forsch 163
- Matt Morris 101
- Chris Carpenter 95
- Lance Lynn 79
Down the road, Lynn will have a good shot at being selected to the Cardinals Hall of Fame. The 2024 homecoming was meaningful to him.
“When you get to the big leagues, you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re just trying to survive,” Lynn told reporters after Tuesday’s win. “When you go to other places and come back it makes you understand what it means to wear this uniform. The things that I was able to accomplish my first time through here and accomplish now are pretty cool.”
Thanks for reading …
–Bernie
A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has provided informed opinions and perspective on St. Louis sports through his columns, radio shows and podcasts since 1985.
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For weekly Cards talk, listen to the “Seeing Red” podcast with Will Leitch and Miklasz. It’s available on Apple, Spotify, or where you get your podcasts. Follow @seeingredpod on X for a direct link.
Stats used in my baseball columns are sourced from FanGraphs, Baseball Reference, Statcast, StatHead, Baseball Savant, Baseball Prospectus, Brooks Baseball Net, and Sports Info Solutions unless otherwise noted.
For the last 36 years Bernie Miklasz has entertained, enlightened, and connected with generations of St. Louis sports fans.
While best known for his voice as the lead sports columnist at the Post-Dispatch for 26 years, Bernie has also written for The Athletic, Dallas Morning News and Baltimore News American. A 2023 inductee into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, Bernie has hosted radio shows in St. Louis, Dallas, Baltimore and Washington D.C.
Bernie, his wife Kirsten and their cats reside in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood of St. Louis.
