ST. LOUIS _ If only the Cardinals could convince the Reds to stay around longer.
The Cardinals completed a sweep of Cincinnati and went to 7-0 against them this season with a 9-2 win on a soggy Sunday at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals are 13-8 this season, with more than half of the wins coming against the befuddled Reds, who are 3-18.
The Cardinals got a solo home run from Kolten Wong (his first) in the second to start the scoring and a three-run homer from Paul DeJong (his seventh) in the seventh for some needed insurance. The Cardinals also got two runs in the third on RBIs from Dexter Fowler and Tyler O'Neill, making his first major-league start.
Miles Mikolas got the win, pitching seven innings and allowing two runs as he went to 3-0 on the season. He struck out six and walked none. He gave up two runs in the sixth, though the Reds got some help. Jose Peraza started the inning by reaching on a throwing error by Matt Carpenter and Joey Votto drove in a run on a bouncer back up the middle that Mikolas couldn't grab with his barehand and deflected into left field. In one stretch, Mikolas retired nine straight batters. Of the 85 pitches he threw, 67 were strikes.
"He's had that history of being able to be in the strike zone," manager Mike Matheny said, "which makes him efficient. We've seen it, but the stuff just continues to get better in our eyes, the way he's using the cutter, the way he's putting movement on the fastball, the breaking ball, attacking the zone. But he's got a little deception too because you're seeing guys not finding the good part of the bat and he keeps pounding the strike zone. It's been really good."
Bud Norris pitched the eighth inning and Greg Holland pitched the ninth, though the offensive burst by the Cardinals in the eighth and ninth took all of the pressure off.
