Burly right-hander Lance Lynn will try to improve on a shaky first start of 2013 on Tuesday night when the St. Louis Cardinals host the middle test of a three-game series with their National League Central Division rivals - the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds, who won the NL Central over the Cardinals last season, spoiled the home opener in St. Louis with a 13-4 triumph, in which they trailed, 4-3, heading into the eighth inning before tying the game with a single run and then scoring nine times in the ninth.
Lynn, who started just twice in 18 games in his first taste of the big leagues in 2011 en route to a World Series title, started 29 times in 35 games last season and was 18-7 with a 3.78 earned run average in 176 innings.
The 6-foot-5, 250-pounder opened 2013 with a four-inning stint at Arizona that ended in a no-decision after he allowed four runs on six hits in a game the Cardinals ultimately lost, 10-9.
Lynn has faced the Reds four times in 54 major-league outings, starting once, while giving up nine hits and five runs in six innings.
He'll be opposed by veteran Bronson Arroyo, who notched the 125th victory of his big-league career in his 2013 debut on April 4, when he allowed three runs in six innings of a 5-4 defeat of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Arroyo is 8-13 in 33 career meetings with the Cardinals, including 31 starts, while surrendering 213 hits and striking out 127 batters in 199 1/3 innings.
St. Louis batters have hit a collective .271 off him, which is six points higher than his career mark of .265.
Arroyo, acquired from the Boston Red Sox for outfielder Wily Mo Pena before the 2006 season, has won double-digit games five times in seven seasons with the Reds - including a career-high 17 in 2010 and 12 last season.
On Monday, Brandon Phillips' RBI double broke a tie game and sparked the decisive nine-run ninth inning.
The rally occurred against St. Louis closer Mitchell Boggs (0-1), who was charged with six earned runs -- seven total -- on four walks and two hits. He recorded just one out.
Shin-Soo Choo, whose two errors earlier in the game plated three of St. Louis' runs, scored the go-ahead run in the ninth and later provided a bases clearing double near the end of inning. Reliever Sam LeCure (1-0) picked up the win with a perfect eighth.
"We battled back, this team is so resilient," said LeCure. "Our lineup is very long and our guys put up some tough at-bats."
The Cardinals won eight of 15 games with the Reds in 2012, including four of six in St. Louis.
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