CHICAGO (AP) — For 11 straight batters in the eighth inning, the St. Louis Cardinals were unstoppable.

It was an emphatic response to a heartbreaking loss.

Paul DeJong hit a tiebreaking two-run double in St. Louis’ highest-scoring inning of the season, and the Cardinals cooled off the Chicago Cubs with an 11-4 victory on Friday.

“I’ve never been a part of something like that, scoring nine runs with no outs,” DeJong said. “But I think that really made a statement for us.”

Chicago carried a 3-2 lead into the eighth, looking for its seventh consecutive win. But St. Louis’ first 11 batters reached in its biggest inning since it scored nine in the eighth against the Cubs on Aug. 30, 2014, at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals made the most of a combined six walks by three relievers while improving to 4-4 since the All-Star break.

“We just pitched badly for one inning, and some really good pitchers had a tough time,” Cubs manager Joe Maddon said.

St. Louis blew a late one-run lead in a 3-2 loss to the New York Mets on Thursday. The game ended when reliever Trevor Rosenthal was late covering first on Jose Reyes’ winning single with two outs in the ninth.

Cardinals manager Mike Matheny was interested in his team’s response, and his players provided an answer.

“I saw a little bit of everything,” Matheny said. “I saw some angry. I saw some, you know, kind of like you got the wind kicked out of you a little bit, and I think everybody needed a little bit of something and that eighth inning provided a whole lot of wind in everybody’s sail.”

Carl Edwards Jr. (3-2) was pulled after the first three batters reached. Hector Rondon then walked Jedd Gyorko, tying it at 3, and DeJong followed with a drive into the ivy in right-center for a ground-rule double.

The Cardinals were off and running from there. Carson Kelly hit a two-run double in his first game since being recalled from Triple-A Memphis. Tommy Pham’s two-run single made it 11-3 before Dexter Fowler bounced into a double play.

When DeJong, the 14th batter of the inning, struck out swinging with runners on second and third for the final out, the crowd of 42,186 cheered sarcastically.

“That was a weird, weird inning,” Rondon said. “First time I’ve seen something like that — nine runs with no outs. It’s weird, but it is what it is.”

Willson Contreras hit a two-run homer for Chicago, and Ben Zobrist had three hits. Jake Arrieta pitched six effective innings, allowing two runs and five hits.

The Cubs played without third baseman Kris Bryant, who sprained his left little finger on a headfirst slide in the first inning of Chicago’s 8-2 victory at Atlanta on Wednesday. X-rays were negative, but Bryant is experiencing soreness and there is some concern about gripping a bat.

Fowler had three hits for St. Louis, and Randal Grichuk homered in his return from a lower back injury. Matt Bowman (2-3) got the final out of the seventh for the win.

LOOK OUT

Cardinals outfielder Jose Martinez was struck on the left side of his head by teammate Matt Carpenter’s eighth-inning foul ball while he was sitting in the dugout. He was taken back to the clubhouse for concussion testing.

“The thing was really quick, quick and painful,” Martinez said. “But everything feels better right now and trying to stay like this `til tomorrow. Doctor’s going to keeping having to keep an eye on me and see what’s going to be the symptoms tomorrow.”

Martinez said he didn’t see the liner. Asked about missing the Cardinals’ nine-run inning, a chuckling Martinez said, “I think it’s better when I’m cheering from the training room.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: Grichuk and LHP Zach Duke were activated from the disabled list for the series opener. The 34-year-old Duke, who is coming back from Tommy John surgery last October, retired the only two batters he faced in the seventh. … All-Star C Yadier Molina was scratched with right ankle discomfort. He was available off the bench, but didn’t play. Kelly replaced him in the lineup.

Cubs: RHP Kyle Hendricks (right hand tendinitis) is on track to return to the rotation early next week, but Maddon wasn’t ready to provide an exact day just yet.

UP NEXT

Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright (11-5, 5.08 ERA) and Cubs left-hander Jon Lester (6-6, 4.07 ERA) start the second game of the series on Saturday afternoon. Wainwright is 4-0 with a 4.18 ERA in his last four starts. Lester pitched seven crisp innings in a 4-3 victory at Atlanta on Monday night.

— Associated Press —

NEW YORK (AP) — Jose Reyes once was one of the fastest players in baseball. Now in his 15th season, he may have lost a step or two.

He was still speedy enough Thursday.

Cardinals pitcher Trevor Rosenthal was late covering first base on a grounder by Reyes that turned into a game-winning single with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting the New York Mets over St. Louis 3-2.

A leadoff walk and T.J. Rivera’s single put runners on the corners with two outs. Reyes then hit a grounder up the first base line, and Matt Carpenter fielded it cleanly well behind the bag.

Rosenthal (2-4) was slow to leave the mound, and Reyes easily beat him to the base with a headfirst dive.

“I saw the first baseman playing way back and I said in my mind if you hit something there, you know, hustle to first base,” Reyes said. “When I saw the pitcher, he was standing on the mound for like two seconds and I said, man, it’s going to be tough for him to beat me to first base.”

Carpenter never even made a throw. Rosenthal hurdled Reyes as they crossed paths.

“I knew he was playing behind the bag. I got caught looking,” Rosenthal said. “It’s a fundamental play, a PFP. If we expect guys to play defense behind us, we’ve got to do our part, too.”

Apparently, all the pitchers’ fielding practice in spring training didn’t pay off.

“You got to get over. I turned and looked to throw and he’s nowhere close,” Carpenter said.

Reyes’ fourth career walkoff RBI gave the Mets a split of the four-game series.

“If the pitcher gets off the mound right away I don’t think he makes it,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “But when you delay like that and you’ve got a guy that runs like Jose runs, who runs hard all the time, that’s going to be a tough play.”

Addison Reed (1-2) pitched a perfect ninth.

Tommy Pham drove reliever Erik Goeddel’s 3-1 changeup into the lower deck in left field to give the Cardinals a 2-1 advantage in the eighth. It was Pham’s 13th home run of the season and third against the Mets.

Pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores homered in the bottom half off Brett Cecil to tie it.

On an oppressively hot afternoon, both starting pitchers did their part to keep the bats cool.

A couple of hours before first pitch, Seth Lugo sat in front of his locker strumming a guitar adorned with the Mets logo, a relaxed look on his face.

The right-hander took that vibe to the mound, keeping the Cardinals off balance with a dizzying curveball and hurling 6 2/3 innings of one-run ball behind a career-high 103 pitches.

Lugo did not allow a hit until two outs in the fifth, when Greg Garcia lined a double into the right field corner.

Lance Lynn allowed one run on three hits in six innings.

Lucas Duda homered into the Cardinals’ bullpen to lead off the second, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead and snapping Lynn’s scoreless streak at a career-high 14 1/3 innings.

It was Duda’s 17th of the season and the 125th of his career, moving him ahead of Todd Hundley for sole possession of seventh place on the franchise’s all-time home run list.

After Carpenter worked a one-out walk in the sixth, Pham hit an RBI double.

BULLPEN SHUFFLE

The Mets activated reliever Josh Smoker from the disabled list. The hard-throwing lefty had been out more than a month with a strained shoulder. He is 1-2 with a 7.45 ERA in 22 games. RHP Neil Ramirez was designated for assignment. He was 0-1 with a 7.18 ERA in 29 games combined with San Francisco and New York.

PUTTING ON THE SHIFT

Asdrubal Cabrera, who began the season as the Mets’ shortstop but moved over to 2B about a month ago to fill in for the injured Neil Walker, will begin taking grounders at 3B. Cabrera is expected to see action there when Walker returns, Collins said.

Walker (partial tear of left hamstring) is set to begin a rehab assignment on Friday with Triple-A Las Vegas and could be activated on Monday in San Diego. He will also take ground balls at third as well as at first base.

“We’ve got to start to use a little bit of the versatility that those guys bring to give us a chance each and every day, perhaps adjust the lineup by moving those guys around a little bit,” Collins said.

Cabrera, a two-time All-Star, has played third only once in the majors. Collins believes the shift will also help his marketability.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: OF Randal Grichuk (lower back strain) was 1 for 4 with a three-run homer for Double-A Springfield on Wednesday night. Manager Mike Matheny said the Cards would make sure Grichuk was feeling good after the rehab game and decide where he goes from there.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: St. Louis will open a three-game set at Wrigley Field on Friday afternoon against the Chicago Cubs. RHP Carlos Martinez (6-8, 3.36 ERA) faces RHP Jake Arrieta (9-7, 4.17 ERA) in the series opener. The Cardinals have lost Martinez’s last five outings, despite three of them being quality starts.

Mets: Oakland visits Citi Field this weekend for the first time since June 2014. LHP Steven Matz (2-3, 4.58 ERA) starts for the Mets, looking to avoid losing his third straight after being charged with seven runs while only retiring three Rockies batters on Sunday. The Athletics counter with rookie RHP Paul Blackburn (1-0, 1.83 ERA), who has lasted at least six innings in all three starts since making his debut earlier this month.

— Associated Press —

NEW YORK (AP) — Staked to an early lead, Jacob deGrom pitched into the seventh inning and won his career-best seventh straight start as the Mets beat the St. Louis Cardinals 7-3 on Wednesday.

New York jumped on Mike Leake (6-8) for seven runs in the first two innings and cruised from there behind deGrom to snap a three-game losing streak.

DeGrom (11-3) settled down after a 25-pitch first inning, allowing seven hits and striking out three. He was pulled with two outs in the seventh after Luke Voit’s double scored Greg Garcia for the Cardinals’ first run.

The Mets sent eight batters to the plate in the first inning and strung together three straight run-scoring hits with two outs, capped by Wilmer Flores’ RBI single.

New York added four more runs off Leake in the second, only one of them earned. Third baseman Jedd Gyorko’s throw sailed into right field on what could have been a double-play grounder by Asdrubal Cabrera. Jay Bruce followed with an RBI single and Yoenis Cespedes doubled to right to make it 5-0.

Jose Reyes drove in two more runs with a single to center, and Leake, who came in with the sixth-best ERA in the National League, was pulled after two innings.

In the eighth, St. Louis loaded the bases with two outs and Magneuris Sierra drove in two runs with a single off Jerry Blevins. Out of pinch hitters, Cardinals manager Mike Matheney sent pitcher Adam Wainwright to plate, and he drew a walk to chase Blevins.

Addison Reed struck out Voit to end the threat and retired the Cardinals in the ninth for his 15th save in 17 chances.

JUST BEING CAUTIOUS

Cespedes, who missed Sunday’s game with a sore hip, drew the attention of manager Terry Collins after doubling in the second inning. He was slow out of the batter’s box and gingerly went in standing at second base. After a brief timeout, he stayed in the game. In the third, Cespedes didn’t run at full speed on a fly ball to left that dropped in front of him for a hit.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Mets 2B Neil Walker is expected to begin a rehab assignment on Friday with Triple-A Las Vegas. Walker, who has been on the disabled list since June 15 with a partial tear in his right hamstring, expects to join the Mets on Monday in San Diego. Veteran Astrubal Cabrera has been playing second base in Walker’s absence and said he’s been taking grounders at third and first in anticipation of his teammate’s return.

UP NEXT

Cardinals RHP Lance Lynn (8-6, 3.40) starts Thursday afternoon in the season series finale against Mets RHP Seth Lugo (4-2, 4.50). Lynn, who has won his last two starts, is 3-3 with a 2.45 ERA in six career starts (eight appearances) against New York, but holds a 0-3 record with a 3.55 ERA in two starts (three appearances) at Citi Field.

— Associated Press —