ST. LOUIS _ Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas, 9-0 on the road this season, has one more start slated in Chicago next weekend. But, if Sunday was the last time he will appear in Busch Stadium this season, he left quite the favorable impression with a sellout crowd of 46,596.
Mikolas, keeping the Cardinals in prime position in the wild-card race, shackled the San Francisco Giants on two hits and one earned run for seven innings as the Cardinals completed a three-game series sweep with a 9-2 victory. The win was Mikolas' 17th in 21 decisions, tying him for the National League lead in wins with Washington's Max Scherzer and Chicago's Jon Lester.
One of the Cardinals' runs even came off the bat of Mikolas, who drove in a fourth-inning run with a two-out single.
Yairo Munoz drove in the first Cardinals' run with a two-out single in the second inning after both Jedd Gyorko and Yadier Molina also had singled.
Mikolas, besides pitching no-hit ball for the first four innings, helped himself at bat by guiding a single to right with two out in the fourth to score Harrison Bader, who had blooped a double to right.
Bader squeezed home a run in the sixth and Munoz knocked in the second run in the inning as manager Mike Shildt started the slow-running Molina and Bader on a 2-2 count and Munoz singled to left. But the Cardinals weren't done yet. They tallied a total of five in the frame against three Giants relievers, two scoring on Jose Martinez's second double of the game and a third on Paul DeJong's single high off the left-field wall.
Matt Carpenter hit a two-run homer in the eighth, his first homer in his last 20 games but his league-leading 36th.
Mikolas, who fanned eight and issued no walks for the 11th time this season, had a perfect game until two out in the San Francisco fourth when second baseman Munoz dropped a pop in short right. Catcher Nick Hundley led off the fifth with a double for the first Giants' hit.
The Giants' second hit came after Munoz's second error in the seventh. Brandon Crawford lined a two-run homer 412 feet to right.
The Cardinals are 18 games over .500 for the first time this season.
