The Walk Off: John Lackey looks masterful as Cubs shut out Cards

Welcome to The Walk Off, the nightly MLB recap from Big League Stew. Here we’ll look the top performers of the night, show you a must-see highlight and rundown the scoreboard. First, we start with a game you need to know about.

There was a lot of talk about a certain ex-St. Louis Cardinals player who would be making his return to Busch Stadium on Monday in a Chicago Cubs uniform. And while Jason Heyward made a couple contributions in the Cubs’ 5-0 win against the Cardinals in their first meeting of 2016, it was another ex-Card who stung the hardest.

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John Lackey looked like a master as he took apart the Cards, striking out 11 and scattering four hits. For Lackey, 37, he was one off his career-high for strikeouts in a game. Talk about rising to the occassion.

The Cubs got on the board first with a sixth-inning homer from Dexter Fowler, then put up three runs in the seventh and added another in the eighth on a Kris Bryant RBI single.

It was Heyward — the man who spurned the Cardinals and signed a eight-year deal with the rival Cubs — who got all the attention coming into Monday night’s game. He earned some boos from Cardinals fans, but nothing extreme. Heyward was 0-for-4 at the plate, but made some nice plays in the outfield.

Lackey also was a Cardinal last year, but he wasn’t pursued by St. Louis in free agency beyond floating a qualifying offer in his direction. He opted to reunite with Jon Lester and Joe Maddon in Chicago on a two-year deal.

The entire 2016 season figures to be a duel between these two NL Central heavyweights, so this win was nothing more than winning the first round for the Cubs, who are now 10-3 and leading the division. The Cardinals are 7-6. These two teams will tangle twice more this week, including Tuesday’s contest, which is the MLB Free Game of the Day on Yahoo Sports. It starts at 8:15 p.m. ET and you can stream the game at sports.yahoo.com/videos.

TOP PERFORMERS

• Noah Syndergaard: It was another impressive start for the man they call Thor, as the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 5-2. Syndergaard struck out eight batters and allowed just one run in seven innings. He’s struck out at least eight in every start this season and has only given up two runs. Credit to Phillies starter Jerad Eickhoff too. He struck out nine and gave up two runs in seven innings.

[Elsewhere: Noah Syndergaard throws so hard he branded his catcher’s chest]

• Hector Santiago: The Los Angeles Angels gave Santiago five runs of support in the first inning, so the pressure was mostly off as he faced the Chicago White Sox. Still, Santiago pitched like a man protecting a one-run lead. He pitched seven shut-out innings, striking out 10 and allowing just two hits. The Angels won 7-0.

• Giancarlo Stanton: The Miami Marlins’ foremost masher had a homer and an RBI single as Miami topped the Washington Nationals by the count of 5-1. Jose Fernandez was great too, striking out nine in six innings. Stanton hasn’t been killing the ball yet this season, but his two hits jumped his batting average up to .238 from .205.

MUST-SEE HIGHLIGHT

Trevor Story, who hadn’t homered in six games, got back in the round-tripper game Monday night. This one was quite clutch too. The Colorado Rockies rookie went deep in the eighth inning of a 1-1 game against the Cincinnati Reds. It was the start of a four-run inning for the Rockies, who would win the game 5-1.

THE REST OF THE SCOREBOARD

• Blue Jays 4, Red Sox 3: The Jays scored four in the eighth inning to steal a win against the Red Sox and relief pitcher Koji Uehara.

• Twins 7, Brewers 4: In a rain-shortened game, the Twins won their fourth straight. This one was called in the sixth inning after a two-hour rain delay.

• D-backs 9, Giants 7: In a wild extra-innings affair, the D-backs came back in the eighth and ninth and eventually won the game with two in the 11th. Jake Lamb had the game-tying in the ninth and drove in an inusrance run in the 11th.

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