CHICAGO _ With each assignment, the next one more challenging than the last, rookie Alex Reyes has been measured all season by the St. Louis Cardinals for moments like Saturday.
The early relief assignments, the late-inning spots, the bases-loaded jam against an MVP candidate, and even last weekend's start against wild-card challenger San Francisco all fed into his first career start at Wrigley Field. The Cardinals accompanied him with a steady backbeat of offense for a 10-4 victory against the archrival Cubs, but the game hinged around Reyes' ability to get key outs when he couldn't get quick outs.
He's no longer being tested. He's being counted on.
"I don't need to keep having him answer that question for me about being able to handle the intensity and the magnitude of where we are in the season or who it is we're playing," manager Mike Matheny said. "That's something that he's got. And it's just now about making good pitches and being consistent. He's got a great knack of trusting himself and an extreme amount of confidence as he stands on the mound. That's a gift."
The 22-year-old righthander has been more than that for the Cardinals, pitching perhaps the two most pivotal games of the season to date. With the Cardinals on the outer rim of the wild-card race, Reyes provided seven shutout innings against the Giants that gave the Cardinals the single biggest jump in their playoff chances this season. Six days later, the Cardinals risked losing a third straight game, dropping a series to the Cubs and giving the Mets and Giants another chance to lurch ahead. Didn't happen. Reyes did.
Reyes (4-1) struck out six and needed 115 pitches to get through five innings. But he overpowered the Cubs when he had to, as he did striking out Kris Bryant in the fourth inning. By the time he yielded to the bullpen the Cardinals had pulled away.
Yadier Molina had four RBIs and Randal Grichuk three as the Cardinals scored 10 runs despite hitting only one homer, a solo shot by Stephen Piscotty. Five of their first six runs came with two outs, and a four-run first inning echoed what the Cubs did in their shutout win Friday.
"Kind of felt like (Friday), just flip-flopped," Grichuk said. "They try to rally up and we kept putting it on them whenever they would score. Never really gave them a chance to gain momentum. Eventually ran away with it."
The win tied the Cardinals (81-73), momentarily, with the Giants. San Francisco and the New York Mets had late games Saturday. Both of those teams will play earlier Sunday before the Cardinals conclude their regular-season road schedule with a nationally televised night game against the Cubs at Wrigley. They have already clinched something at the Friendly Confines that they won't have at home _ a winning record. After Saturday's win, the Cardinals are 6-3 on the North Side, and after getting an eyeful of what the Cubs do well on Friday, the Cardinals tickled the ivy with what they do best Saturday.
They hit.
They hit throughout the lineup.
Matheny calls it a "relentless-style" offense. The depth of the production from the lineup has been the Cardinals' signature this season, as much a part of their year as any defensive foibles. Seven Cardinals scored runs Saturday; five Cardinals had extra-base hits. The Nos. 5-7 hitters combined to go five for five with runners in scoring position. Against Cubs starter Jason Hammel (15-10), the Cardinals first stirred with two outs in the first. Brandon Moss drew a walk, and Jhonny Peralta followed with the first of his three singles. Molina skipped a double down the left-field line to score two, and Grichuk followed with a two-RBI single. Piscotty's homer, his 22nd of the season, came in the second inning off Hammel, and Piscotty's double ignited a three-run seventh four innings after Hammel had taken a seat.
"Got the offense going _ and it became contagious," Matheny said. "That's something that we have to do. We just have to be a team that's going to go out there and slug. And play as clean baseball as we can."
The Cubs answered with two runs in the bottom of the first and another in the bottom of the second, but at each point the NL Central champs could have swung back into the game, Reyes turned them back to the dugout. The Cardinals' top prospect regained control of the first inning when he struck out Addison Russell on a 97 mph fastball. In the second, Reyes ended the inning when he got Anthony Rizzo to strike out with two runners in scoring position. Rizzo missed an 88 mph changeup.
By the end of the third inning, Reyes had thrown 71 pitches and fallen into the deep counts that concerned the Cardinals when they removed him from the rotation.
It's been that kind of season for the Cardinals' top prospect, with the team reading his responses to problems and instruction, starts and even a suspension to know what Reyes can be relied on to do. He started the season serving a 50-game suspension for using marijuana, and Matheny said Reyes "wouldn't be here if the (front office) felt like he didn't mature through that process." He wouldn't have started if he hadn't been dynamic in relief against the Cubs on Sept. 13. He entered the game with the bases loaded and Kris Bryant up, and Reyes struck out the MVP favorite to end the inning.
That was one of the moments Matheny put on his checklist and knew "you could throw him out there in big games and leave him in. If it didn't look great, it wasn't because he was overwhelmed."
At Class AAA, backup catcher Brayan Pena gave Reyes a bit of advice that he carried to the majors: "Trusting my abilities," he said. It was there with him in the fourth inning as Bryant again came to the plate to face Reyes with a chance to spin the game. Dexter Fowler had just tripled. Reyes' pitch count was climbing into the 90s. A 6-2 lead could be cut in half with a swing. Bryant didn't take it. Reyes got him looking at a full-count, 82 mph slider.
That's not even his best breaking ball.
Having passed everything thrown at him, Reyes is now doing the testing.
"That moment was a game-changer," Reyes said. "It's a mix of whatever Yadi wants to put down there. He trusts it. I trust it. Let's go after it."
