ST. LOUIS -- Thirteen years into an MLB career that some said would never last very long, Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn showed what still drives him to keep pitching with the way he handled the cat-and-mouse game against Reds superstar Elly De La Cruz in two at-bats on Wednesday.

Lynn, who was back pitching for the first time since July 30 after fighting through right knee irritation, struck out the Cincinnati All-Star shortstop with a high fastball in the third inning to get out of a jam with two runners on. Then, two innings later with the Reds threatening to break the game open again, the cagey, 37-year-old right-hander did the last thing De La Cruz likely ever expected to escape more trouble.

Lynn uncharacteristically went away from his fastball -- a pitch he used for 81 of his 90 pitches over five innings of strong work -- and instead baffled De La Cruz with a curveball to draw a strike three looking.

“I actually threw all three [curveballs] to him,” Lynn said with a sly smile after the Cardinals defeated the Reds 2-1 following a Paul Goldschmidt game-winning RBI in the eighth inning. “I showed him a couple of bad ones in the first [inning] so that I could use them later in the game when I needed it. Show him the [bad one] that wasn’t worth [anything] and then have something left for later.”

The Cardinals snapped a four-game losing streak to the rival Reds when Goldschmidt hit a Buck Farmer slider off the wall in the eighth and Ryan Helsley closed out the ninth for his 44th save in 48 tries. But the night belonged to Lynn, who inspired the Cardinals both with his pitching and the venom he spewed after the two strikeouts of De La Cruz in big spots. That second strikeout of De La Cruz allowed Lynn to become just the sixth active MLB pitcher with 2,000 innings pitched.

“He makes me smile and I appreciated his competitiveness,” Goldschmidt said of Lynn, who limited the Reds to just one run and five hits over five innings. “He’s a great competitor. You don’t get 2,000 innings and strikeouts without doing something right. He always brings it and gives you all he’s got.”

Added manager Oliver Marmol: “I love watching [Lynn] pitch, he’s a fiery dude and he yells at everything. Just the way he goes about it ignites a fire in everybody.”

Signed in the offseason for a second stint with the Cardinals after yielding an MLB-high 44 home runs in 2023, Lynn had his 2024 season rolling in June and July before being forced to miss time with a painful right knee. Lynn not only went 4-1 over a six-start stretch, but he also limited the Rangers to three hits and one earned run on July 30 despite hobbling badly on one leg.

The emotion that he screamed to both nobody and everybody following the De La Cruz strikeouts was a product of not being able to be on an MLB mound the past five weeks, he said.

“I think you could tell by my emotions coming off the field,” said Lynn, who struck out seven Reds. “Those had been pent up for 30 days.”

Lynn’s work on Wednesday allowed him to lower his ERA to 3.96 for the season. Not exactly the sentimental type when it comes to baseball accomplishments, Lynn said the 2,000-inning milestone was important to him because it spoke to his longevity, consistency and ability to still get outs in the latter stages of his career.

“Guys around here would tell me that it just means that I’m old,” said Lynn, who made the 339th start of his MLB career. “When you’re old and you play a long time, you get the luxury of having some fun milestones like that. I’ve had a few this year and it’s been great to do it in St. Louis where it all started. One of the reasons it was so enticing to come back was to hit those milestones here. So, I’m very proud of those and to be able to do them in a Cardinals uniform where it all started.”

Lynn said the driving force behind him still wanting to pitch is the thought that some told him he’d never last long in the big leagues if he didn’t control his temper and throw pitches other than his fastball more often.

“To play this game you’ve got to create chips on your shoulder to help drive you,” he said. “I’ve had plenty of them -- made up and given to me and I’ve had fun with it.”