CINCINNATI (AP) — Todd Frazier hit two homers, including the first of Cincinnati’s three off Lance Lynn, and the Reds recovered from a 16-inning loss by overpowering the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 on Thursday night, taking three of four in their final series of the season. Jay Bruce and Shin-Soo Choo also hit solo homers off Lynn, who lasted five innings and gave up three homers for only the second time in his career. Frazier also connected off Seth Maness for the third multihomer game of his career.

Left-hander Tony Cingrani returned from a sore back and did a little bit of everything. He pitched into the sixth inning, gave up two runs, bunted for a hit, stole a base and scored. David Freese homered for the Cardinals, who have lost six of eight.

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St. Louis first baseman Allen Craig has a sprained left foot but no fracture, a big relief for a Cardinals team that feared it had lost its cleanup hitter for the rest of the season. Craig hurt his foot while rounding first base during a 5-4, 16-inning win over the Cincinnati Reds on Wednesday night. He stayed on the ground for a long time and walked off gingerly.

X-rays in Cincinnati were inconclusive. He was sent back to St. Louis for an MRI and more X-rays that indicated nothing was broken. Manager Mike Matheny says it’s a relief that he can return at some point. The Cardinals were in second place in the NL Central, a game behind Pittsburgh, heading into their game on Thursday night.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) – Alex Smith is finally getting his chance to start in the NFL again.    After getting hurt and then benched last season in San Francisco, Smith was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs this past offseason. Now, Smith doesn’t have to look over his shoulder at guys like Colin Kaepernick nipping at his heels. He’s the unquestioned starter as the Chiefs head into their opener Sunday at Jacksonville.

It’ll be the first game that Smith has started since last Nov. 11, when he took the opening snaps in a 24-24 tie with St. Louis. It was in that game that Smith sustained a concussion, and when he was cleared to return two games later, Kaepernick had seized the starting job. Smith never started again during the 49ers’ NFC championship run.

DES MOINES, Iowa – Matchups and tipoff times for the 2013 Hy-Vee Big Four Classic have been determined as the state of Iowa’s four NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams prepare to take center stage at Wells Fargo Arena on Dec. 7. Northern Iowa and Iowa State will open the doubleheader event with a 5 p.m. tipoff followed by Drake and Iowa renewing their series at 7:30 p.m.

One of the marquee basketball events in the Midwest, the Hy-Vee Big Four Classic is in its second season after a successful debut in 2012 that saw 13,180 fans stream through the Wells Fargo Arena turnstiles. The 2014 edition promises to be just as attractive to basketball fans in Iowa as three of the Big Four teams appeared in the postseason in 2012-13.

Tickets for Hy-Vee Big Four Classic range in price from $25-70. Each institution will have an equal number of game tickets to distribute. Tickets will be good for admission to both games of the doubleheader and will be made available first to each institution’s basketball season ticket holders. Tickets not sold by the institutions will be placed on sale for the general public through the Wells Fargo Arena box office at a date to be announced.

The Hy-Vee Big Four Classic opener between Iowa State and UNI features two teams that went a combined 44-27 last season with Iowa State advancing to the third round of the NCAA Tournament and UNI winning three postseason games to advance to the semifinals of the Collegeinsider.com Tournament.

The nightcap includes an Iowa team that went 25-13 in 2012-13 to earn a berth in the National Invitational Tournament and streak through the field to earn runner-up honors after falling to Baylor in the title game at Madison Square Garden. Drake, which went 15-17 a season ago, will feature a re-tooled roster under first-year head coach Ray Giacoletti, who previously served as an assistant at Gonzaga for the past six seasons.

Potential television broadcasts of the Hy-Vee Big Four Classic will be announced at a later date.

The event’s sponsor, Hy-Vee, Inc., is an employee-owned corporation operating 234 retail supermarkets and drug stores in eight Midwestern states. With sales of more than $7.7 billion, Hy-Vee ranks among the top 20 supermarket chains and the top 50 private companies in the United States. As representatives of the famous “helpful smile in every aisle” brand, Hy-Vee’s 66,000 employee-owners take pride in meeting customers’ desire for quality products, outstanding values and superior customer service. Additional information about Hy-Vee is available at hy-vee.com.