Lackey, Heyward help Cubs set different tone vs. Cards this time

ST. LOUIS – Six months after beating the rival Cardinals in their first postseason meeting, the Cubs on Monday rubbed it in.

With former Cardinals starter John Lackey pitching seven scoreless innings, and former Cardinals right fielder Jason Heyward making two sliding plays to take away hits, the Cubs beat the defending division champs 5-0 in their first meeting of the year.

Last season, the Cubs lost six of their first seven games at Busch Stadium against a team that Lackey and Heyward helped win 100 games.

It’s just the first of 19 meetings over a six-month season, but it seemed at least a message was delivered, if not a power struggle signaled as this year’s National League Central race gets underway.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” said Lackey, who struck out 11, allowing just four hits and a walk in his 91-pitch outing. “We think we’ve got a pretty good team here, and our expectations are high. And we’re embracing those, and we’re shooting high. We’re OK with that.

“But it’s still early on. Let’s just play some baseball and see what happens.”

Lackey and others from both teams downplayed the significance of the matchup, but the tone suggested an elevated level of anticipation from both sides beyond the fans and hype-centric media.

Cardinals fans were in full-throated boo mode every time Heyward went to the plate or handled the ball in the field – or took his position to start the game.

“Oh, yeah, you hear it. But it’s fun,” Heyward said. “They don’t boo too often, so it must be somebody important, somebody doing something worth booing.”

Enough Cubs fans were in attendance to dilute the intensity some.

“I’ve seen booed,” Lackey scoffed. “And that ain’t booed. That was pretty soft booing.”

Gamesmanship started with batting practice, when the dulcet, almost romantic, tones of Johann Pachelbel’s Canon in D Major played from the Busch public address system as the Cubs batted.

When the song ended, the PA system went silent. Minutes later, Cubs assistant hitting coach Eric Hinske ran onto the field with the Cubs’ own speaker and setting it next to the batting cage as it blared some 1980s Journey.

At which point, the PA system picked up again, loud enough to drown out the Cubs’ tunes.

“That’s beautiful,” manager Joe Maddon said. “We love the psychological entertainment warfare.”

He loved the pitching of Lackey on this night even better. And the leadoff homer by Dexter Fowler in the sixth that broke through a pitching duel between Lackey and his replacement with the Cardinals, Mike Leake.

As much as anything, the way the added experience has transformed this Cubs team since those days last May and June when they couldn’t overcome this place and this rival.

“We’ve become more veteran, and I think that matters a lot in a ballpark like this,” said Maddon, whose front office added not only Lackey and Heyward as free agents but also Ben Zobrist. “When you’re playing them here, with a really active crowd and a really good team, you have to be able to think properly in the later part of the game.”

Lackey scoffed at Maddon’s suggestion he tends to focus at an even higher level for games with added meaning but admitted beating his former team was gratifying, “maybe a little more, for sure.”

Along the way, he became the 16^th pitcher to beat all 30 current major-league teams (only one active).

Lackey (3-0), the Cardinals’ Game 1 playoff starter against the Cubs last October, was in trouble just once when he had runners at second and third with one out in the fifth – before striking out Leake and All-Star Matt Carpenter back-to-back to escape.

“It was a little weird at the beginning, warming up in the other bullpen, that sort of thing,” said Lackey, who, unlike Heyward, never was pursued as a free agent by the Cards. “But no hard feelings on that situation. They went a different direction, and I ended up in a great place.”