CHICAGO (AP) — Kris Bryant wasn’t going to let a sprained pinkie and a broken bat hold him back.

They certainly didn’t slow him down.

Bryant raced home from first base on Anthony Rizzo’s bloop double, capping a three-run rally in the eighth inning that sent the Chicago Cubs over the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 Saturday in the ever-tightening NL Central race.

Bryant also had a tying, broken-bat single during the comeback. The reigning NL MVP hurt his left pinkie on Wednesday and Cubs manager Joe Maddon considered him unlikely to play this game after the injury kept him out of Friday’s 11-4 loss to the Cardinals.

“KB being able to play was the difference in today’s game,” Maddon said. “The combination of the hit and his speed, I don’t think anybody else scores on that. Maybe Jason (Heyward), possibly. Happer (Ian Happ), possibly. But KB is such a good baserunner. He had it in his head the moment the ball was hit.”

The Cubs began the day one game behind shaky Milwaukee for the division lead, with the Cardinals 3 1/2 back of the Brewers.

A classic pitchers’ duel between Jon Lester and Adam Wainwright kept it scoreless into the eighth.

After Paul DeJong and Randal Grichuk hit two-out homers off Lester for a 2-0 lead, the Cubs came back.

Ben Zobrist’s RBI double with two outs made it 2-1 and chased Wainwright. Bryant greeted reliever Matt Bowman (2-4) with a single that tied it.

Brett Cecil then relieved and on a 3-2 pitch, Rizzo hit a looper to shallow left-center. Bryant ran hard the whole way and slid home feet first as catcher Yadier Molina couldn’t control center fielder Dexter Fowler’s one-hop throw.

Statcast showed Rizzo’s hit landed 252 feet from the plate — it was 270 feet from first to home for Bryant.

“Full count, I got a head start, so that was huge,” Bryant said. “You’ve got to give him (Rizzo) a ton of credit. He worked a great at-bat. Something I take pride in is my baserunning and surprising people.”

Lester (7-6) had a perfect game until Wainwright singled with two outs in the sixth. Lester gave up three hits and struck out 10 in eight innings.

Wade Davis issued a pair of two-out walks in the ninth before fanning Molina for his 19th saves in 19 chances.

Wainwright allowed two runs on four hits in 7 2/3 innings, retiring 14 straight at one point.

“Some of my best execution,” Wainwright said. “My stuff was good, my execution was good and the defense played great behind me, so it was a good recipe. It just didn’t work out.”

EMOTIONAL WIN

Lester wrote the letters “PLACT” written on his cap Saturday and choked up when asked about it following the game.

“My family — I lost my uncle yesterday,” Lester said. “For the Notre Dame fans, he went to Notre Dame, so it’s `Play Like a Champion Today.’ Just to let him know that I was thinking of him.”

“Play Like a Champion Today” is a hallowed sign outside the Notre Dame football team’s locker room.

HENDRICKS READY, MONTGOMERY TO PEN

Kyle Hendricks, who has not pitched since June 4 due to tendinitis in his pitching hand, will return to the Cubs rotation on Monday against the White Sox. The 27-year-old righty is 4-3 with a 4.09 ERA in 11 starts this season after going 16-8 with a major league-best 2.13 ERA last season.

Mike Montgomery will go back to the bullpen to make room for Hendricks, Maddon said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Cardinals: OF Jose Martinez passed initial concussion-protocol tests after being struck on the side of the head by a foul ball in the dugout on Friday. … Molina (sore right ankle) returned to the lineup. He was a late scratch on Friday.

UP NEXT

Cardinals RHP Michael Wacha (7-3, 3.71 ERA) and Cubs LHP Jose Quintana (5-8, 4.20) are set to start the series finale Sunday night. Wacha pitched the first complete game of his career in the Cardinals’ 5-0 victory over the Mets on Tuesday and is 3-0 with a 0.87 ERA in July. Quintana, acquired in a trade with the White Sox on July 13, struck out 12 in seven scoreless innings to win his Cubs debut last Sunday.

— Associated Press —

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 —