Cardinals starter Lance Lynn threw a career-high 124 pitches in his outing against the Mets on Monday night but told MLB.com on Tuesday that he does not worry about pitch counts. The right-hander has thrown at least 101 pitches in all but two of his eight starts this year.
"For me, pitch count has never been an issue my whole life," he said. "I would never put a ceiling on it. If they told me I could go out and throw 150 if the situation called for it, I would. And I don't think I would have any issues doing it."
Manager Mike Matheny added that he is not hesitant to push his starters deeper into their pitch counts.
"[Monday] was really the first day we really stretched somebody, and a lot of people say that 120 is really not a number to be concerned about," Matheny said. "Lance has been there many times, especially through his minor league career. It's something he can handle.
"If we see something early that we don't like, it doesn't matter if it's on pitch 20 or 120, we've got to respond more to what we see and how they feel and the information they give us back. We watch these guys pretty close and see them enough to know when there are little issues, hopefully before they become big issues."