Home sweet home: Lynn continues Busch mastery in possible last start

ST. LOUIS – Taught for years to tune out the emotion of the moment, and instead focus solely on the task at hand, Lance Lynn went counter on to all that on Tuesday while pitching in what could have been his final start in a Cardinals uniform or for the final time at Busch Stadium.

What Lynn, 37, did on Tuesday was allow those emotions to fuel his fire, to help him ignore the pain in his balky right knee that was coursing through his right arm while shutting down the Pirates before a Busch Stadium crowd that included his wife, Dymin, three of his children, his father and brothers.

“You know, obviously, if this was your last start at Busch Stadium, you don’t want to lose – it was that simple,” said Lynn, who allowed just four hits and one earned run in the Cardinals' 3-1 defeat of the Pirates. “I had my family here, brothers, dad and everybody here, so I couldn’t lose in front of them.”

Gruff and fiery on the exterior, Lynn has expressed privately to teammates and coaches how much it meant to him to be back with the Cardinals, the franchise that selected him 39th overall in the 2008 MLB Draft and the franchise he won a World Series with in 2011. Clearly in the later stages of a 13-year career that many doubted would ever last this long, Lynn has cherished hitting numerous milestones while wearing the birds on the bat across his chest for a second stint.

Earlier this season, he became just the sixth active MLB pitcher with 2,000 strikeouts and 2,000 innings pitched. On Tuesday, he made his 100th career appearance at Busch Stadium III and was dominant enough over six innings that he improved to 6-0 in St. Louis this season. Incredibly, Lynn is 9-0 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 is 46-20 all time at Busch Stadium and his .697 winning percentage at the park is fourth-best in team history.

“If it’s my last start as a Cardinal, I’d like it to be in St. Louis,” admitted Lynn, who might be shut down the rest of the way because of his knee and the Cardinals' positioning in the standings.

Lynn’s lasting legacy, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said, could be the insight he has poured into younger pitchers, namely Andre Pallante and Matthew Liberatore. The Cardinals had hoped that by singing veterans Kyle Gibson and Lynn that they would help shepherd others in need of seasoning. Behind closed doors and away from the glare of Busch Stadium, Lynn has held up his end of the bargain, Marmol marveled.

“He’s been incredible, and I’ve loved every second of him being here,” Marmol said. “I think we picked the right guy to come in and help mold the culture in ways that matter.

“Everyone sees Lance as this big, burly dude that’s angry and yells bad words at times, but the reality is that he knows the game extremely well and is incredibly thoughtful and intentional with what he communicates. He’s always making sure he is bringing guys together. So, the reasons that we brought him here, he’s nailed every one of them.”

Lynn said he’s been open to working with others because that’s the way veterans Chris Carpenter, Jake Westbrook, Adam Wainwright and Kyle Lohse shared their knowledge with him. Lynn admitted that he rolled his eyes at times at the so-called “Cardinal Way,” early in his career, but going elsewhere to pitch for the Rangers, Twins, Yankees, White Sox and Dodgers taught him to better appreciate how he was raised to play the game by the Cards.

“When you get to the big leagues, you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re just trying to survive,” Lynn said. “When you go to other places and come back it makes you understand what it means to wear this [Cardinals] uniform. The things that I was able to accomplish my first time through here and accomplish now are pretty cool.”

Having won five of his last six starts – a stretch interrupted by a five-week stay on the Injured List because of the painful knee – Lynn knows he can still get big league hitters out. In the months ahead, he’ll decide if he wants to continue pitching in 2025 – as a Cardinal or elsewhere.

“If you ask me if I want to pitch, I never want to stop pitching,” he said. “But I know there’s going to be a time when that’s going to happen. I haven’t really thought about it, but it’s part of getting older.”