Lyons saves ‘pen with extra-long relief

ST. LOUIS — The Cardinals were readying to hand Sunday’s spot start to long reliever Tyler Lyons, though not yet prepared to commit to it ahead of the club’s series opener against the Dodgers. Mike Matheny wanted to first see how Friday played out.

And indeed, circumstances changed. Instead of stepping in to fill a rotation void this weekend, Lyons stepped up to lift the Cardinals to their fifth straight win by covering the bulk of the extra frames in the team’s 4-3, 16-inning victory over the Dodgers at Busch Stadium. Lyons twirled 4 2/3 sensational innings of relief to lead into Matt Adams’ game-winning home run.

“That was the story,” manager Mike Matheny said of Lyon’s performance. “Tyler was the star tonight.”

Matheny turned to Lyons in the 11th to face the left-handed-hitting Chase Utley and Corey Seager. Lyons garnered those outs with ease, and breezed through the 12th as well. At that point, Matheny, who had three other unused relievers available, made a call that he knew would have a residual effect.

Instead of saving Lyons for what …

continue reading in source mlb.mlb.com