After departing the Cardinals as a free agent in 2018, right-hander Lance Lynn bounced around to five other teams and never pitched another game in St. Louis.
Lynn is now back with the Cardinals and happy to start their home opener against the Miami Marlins on Thursday.
"I had hoped that I would never pitch on that mound except in a Cardinals uniform," Lynn told The Athletic. "So the fun that that's going to bring, I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be exciting."
Lynn (0-0, 0.00 ERA) threw four scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his first start of the season on Saturday. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out five before a rain delay cut short his outing.
He gave up three singles to begin that outing, then struck out the next three Dodgers to escape unscathed.
"Obviously you don't want to load up the bases, especially against this lineup," Lynn said. "I was able to get away with it."
Lynn demonstrated the mental toughness the Cardinals sought by signing him and fellow starting pitchers Sonny Gray and Kyle Gibson as free agents during the offseason.
"They load the bases and then (Lynn) comes through and punches out three," Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said after the Saturday contest. "You want the group and that staff to take on that personality with what we saw today with Lance. Just battled through and figured out a way to continue to get outs."
Lynn's one start against the Marlins last season went badly. He allowed eight runs on seven hits, including three homers, and three walks in 4 2/3 innings.
For his career, Lynn is 4-3 against Miami with a 5.48 ERA in 10 appearances, including eight starts.
While the Cardinals began their season by going 3-4 in California against the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres, the reeling Marlins lost all seven games of their opening homestand against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Los Angeles Angels.
"They're going about it the right way. It's tough," Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said of his players after a 10-2 loss to the Angels on Wednesday afternoon. "They're not happy in there. We're not happy.
"As a staff, we're here to try to help them get better and help them win games, and we're not doing that right now, obviously, with no wins. So we've got to circle up as a staff and figure out how to get them on the right track."
The Marlins will counter Lynn with left-hander Ryan Weathers (0-1, 6.75 ERA). He is part of a Miami rotation that is missing injured starting pitchers Sandy Alcantara, Braxton Garrett, Eury Perez and Edward Cabrera.
Weathers allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks in four innings during a 9-3 loss to the Pirates during his season debut on Saturday. He needed 94 pitches to get 12 outs.
"I was making a lot of quality pitches," Weathers said. "Had several (at-bats) that were just long at-bats, then just leave one pitch over the heart of the plate and they turn into base hits.
"Thought I threw the ball fine, just the pitch count got ran up quick. The pitches were -- I went back and watched, and they were all well-located."
In two career appearances against the Cardinals, including one start, Weathers allowed two runs on four hits over five innings.
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