Lyons gets his shot as a fill-in for Wainwright on Tuesday night
ST. LOUIS -- The newest starter in the Cardinals' rotation knows what it feels like to have success at the major league level.
Tyler Lyons gave up just one earned run in seven innings each of his first two big-league starts, a pair of wins at San Diego and Kansas City in 2013. St. Louis would love to see a similar outing from the left-hander Tuesday night, when he takes the mound as the second pitcher to start in place of Adam Wainwright since the ace went down for the season with an Achilles injury.
"(Lyons) is throwing the ball well," manager Mike Matheny said. "He's shown us in the past. He's had some good outings where he's strong for a certain period of time, and I think that's part of that process of gaining confidence in yourself to have a good start that continues."
Consistency will be the main focus for Lyons against the Cubs, and he's not trying to think about whether a good start could earn him a permanent spot in the rotation. Marco Gonzales and Jaime Garcia both figure to be in that conversation when they return from shoulder injuries later this month, but Lyons knows from experience his next opportunity could come at any time.
After a slow start with the Cardinals in spring training and a rough 2015 debut for Triple A Memphis against an Iowa lineup featuring current Cubs starters Addison Russell and Kris Bryant, Lyons bounced back to hold his opponents scoreless in two of his past three starts. That includes an impressive win last Tuesday, when he struck out six in eight scoreless innings.
"I was able to execute pitches," Lyons said. "I wouldn't say it was necessarily the best stuff I had, but I was able to go out there and make pitches and control counts like I talked about."
Maness wins in-game bunt competition
Reliever Seth Maness had to work to earn his first at-bat of the season Sunday afternoon.
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The Cardinals had run out of position players in the 13th inning and knew they might need someone who could lay down a bunt with pitcher Sam Tuivailala slated to bat second. After he struck out Sean Rodriguez to finish the Pirates' half of the 13th, Tuivailala got a new challenge from Matheny.
"He had the world's quickest tryout when he came off the mound," Matheny said. "That's where Seth bunted and so we had a competition real fast back in the cages to see who the better bunter was."
Obviously, Maness won, and shortstop Jhonny Peralta did his part with a leadoff single. Maness couldn't get the bunt down on the field, but Kolten Wong made up for it with his walk-off home run in the very next inning.
If the game had gone longer and the Cardinals had run into any trouble with position players, Matheny says Carlos Martinez, who will start Monday night against the Cubs, would have been the likely substitute.
"Usually, it's going to come down to the guy that can't pitch that night and same thing with our starters," Matheny said.
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