ST. LOUIS -- Asked earlier in the season how he was able to rack up such a good whiff rate by throwing primarily all fastballs, Cardinals veteran right-hander Lance Lynn replied somewhat sarcastically, “Because I know how to pitch a little bit.”

The 37-year-old Lynn showed just that once again on Sunday, striking out six and limiting the Reds’ offense to just two hits over six scoreless innings as the Cardinals beat Cincinnati 2-0 to salvage a split of the four-game series.

Lynn, who is in his second stint with the Cardinals after starring for them from 2011-17, struck out Noelvi Marte in the second inning for his 1,000th strikeout as a Cardinal. He joined Bob Gibson, Adam Wainwright, Dizzy Dean, Chris Carpenter and Bob Forsch as the only pitchers in the rich history of the franchise with at least 1,000 strikeouts.

His work helped the Cardinals cap off a 7-3 homestand before embarking on a seven-game road trip to Pittsburgh and Washington beginning Tuesday.

Lynn came into the day throwing some variation of a fastball 86 percent of the time this season, a pitch he’s used to register a 24.3 percent whiff rate and a 21.7 percent strikeout rate, per Baseball Savant. According to Statcast’s run value metric, Lynn’s four-seam fastball (+12) has been one of the best pitches in baseball this season (.202 opposing batting average). On Sunday, Lynn threw four-seam fastballs for 53 of his 79 pitches and induced 13 of his 17 whiffs with the pitch.

Backup catcher Pedro Pagés singled in each of his first three at-bats for the first three-hit day of his young MLB career. In the fifth inning, he delivered a leadoff single, moved up to second on a hit by Masyn Winn and scored on an Alec Burleson liner to right field. The Cards added on to their lead in the sixth when Winn doubled in Nolan Arenado from second base.