ATLANTA — Whether Miles Mikolas was teasing a no-hitter or shouldering another quality start for a rotation in need of every single one, the Cardinals have trumpeted the right-hander as an All-Star candidate and equal to all the aces he’s faced, from Max Scherzer to Corbin Burnes.
“Aces go against aces,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “That’s how it works.”
Mikolas matched Atlanta lefty Max Fried draw for draw until the game took a turn on the river. In the fifth, the Braves decked the Cardinals with two solo home runs in the span of three pitches to send them toward a 3-0 victory Wednesday at Truist Field. Mikolas gave an innings-starved team everything they needed with his six innings of quality baseball.
The offense backed him with nothing.
On their way to a fourth consecutive loss, the Cardinals left nine batters on base through the first eight innings. They have scored a total of one run since midnight Monday against Atlanta. They had fleeting opportunities against Fried with at a baserunner in each of the first four innings, but the best chance to break the flush of zeroes on the scoreboard came in the eighth inning. In a stunning move given the names involved but not the year, Albert Pujols was lifted for a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded in the eighth inning.
The Cardinals went with matchups, the more recent history over the remarkable history and turned to rookie Nolan Gorman as the left-handed bat to face right-handed reliever Jesse Chavez. In the team’s previous 53 plate appearances with the bases loaded, the Cardinals have one extra base hit — Paul Goldschmidt’s walk-off grand slam.
Gorman did not add to that total.
He grounded out to end the inning and the chance to flip the game.
Fried (9-2), a high school teammate of Cardinals’ right-handed Jack Flaherty, pitched six scoreless innings . The first Cardinals starter of the series to get through the first two innings without a five-run deficit, Mikolas echoed Fried’s six innings and the four strikeouts. He completed his team-high 11th quality start at a time when the bullpen needed the break. The difference between the starts was three pitches. Marcell Ozuna greeted his former teammate with a solo homer to lead off the fifth inning. The reigning NLCS MVP Eddie Rosario, bogged down with a .096 average, followed two pitches later with his first home run of the season for the defending World Series champs.
The Braves widened their lead with back-to-back doubles against Mikolas (5-7) in the sixth inning before he got Ozuna to pop out and leave the rest of the game to the offense.
The ace had waited as long as he could for the clubs.
Pujols snaps funk, nears Musial
How the Cardinals intend to use Pujols has evolved over the past month, and so too has the approach opponents have taken with him at the plate.
“Less strikes,” Marmol said. “There’s more chase there right now.”
Rather than challenge the 42-year-old, three-time MVP with fastballs, some pitchers have downshifted to see if they can get Pujols to widen his zone and go chasing off-speed pitches below the zone. What’s followed is some prolonged at-bats against lefties he was signed to face – like Atlanta’s reliever Will Smith or Milwaukee’s closer Josh Hader – but not the results Pujols or the Cardinals had hoped. Entering Wednesday’s start against Fried, Pujols had one hit in his previous 21 at-bats.
Over his previous 22 plate appearances he had not walked, struck out eight times, and contributed a sacrifice fly.
“When you say results-oriented, that’s what makes him great,” Marmol said. “He’s not going to accept anything other than how he did in the end. Did I win? Did I lose?”
He maintained a .740 OPS with a .265 average against lefties, and that got him late looks at Hader and Smith and his latest start, vs. Fried.
Pujols got closer to history by improving his present.
In his first two at-bats against Fried, Pujols connected for a single and a double. Pujols legged out a fourth-inning double for his 1,376th extra-base hit in the majors. That is one shy of Stan Musial’s 1,377th. Musial had the major-league record for extra-base hits when he retired after the 1963 season. He currently ranks third all-time, behind Hank Aaron (1,477) and Barry Bonds (1,440).
Cardinals struggles persist with RISP rewards
Overshadowed by the long rain delay Monday and the late rally that fell short that night was the reason the Cardinals could not overcome an early six-run deficit. It’s been a trend on this trip.
The Cardinals’ offense, which entered Wednesday with the fifth-most runs in the game and top-10 metrics overall, has spiraled into a slump with runners in scoring position.
This road trip has become a road skid – with the Cardinals going one-for-11 on Monday with runners in scoring position. Entering the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game, the Cardinals were zero-for-four in that game and three-for-36 (.083) on the road trip. The one hit with runners in scoring position the Cardinals had in Atlanta through the first 25 innings was a single that did not produce an RBI. One of the three hits the Cardinals had on the trip was the home run in Nolan Arenado’s cycle – last Friday.
The Cardinals had their best crack at upending Fried’s start in the sixth inning when Dylan Carlson drew a leadoff walk. Paul Goldschmidt followed with a single. The Cardinals had the middle of the order up, two on, and nobody out.
They also had at-bats with runners in scoring position.
The trend continued.
Arenado bounced into a corner-to-corner double play with Riley handling the out at third and slinging to first to unplug the inning. With Goldschmidt left at second, rookie Juan Yepez struck out, and the inning ended faster than it began, but the RISP issues continued.
Just a colorful discussion about pace of play
In what was likely an attempt to disrupt the peppy pace Mikolas likes to set and maintain during his starts, the Braves stepped out of the box, asked for time, and were finding reasons not to get set at the plate. Mikolas’ agitation was obvious as he shrugged from the mound.
Atlanta catcher Travis d’Arnaud drew the ire of the Cardinals’ dugout during the second inning. Home plate umpire Carlos Torres granted d’Arnaud a late time out as Mikolas got set to deliver a pitch.
A camera for ESPN’s national telecast showed Marmol offering his opinion of such actions, shouting some sharp adjectives and verbs in the direction of the umpire and d’Arnaud. The complaint seemed to be that the umpire didn’t have to play along with the ploy. Later in the game, Mikolas just took his sweet time exploring the outer perimeter of the mound as the crowd took note of his delay and started to boo him. During an in-game interview with ESPN, Marmol was asked about the exchange and said it had to do with “pace of play.”
Sure.
The play was to test his pitcher’s pace.
Knizner gets the call
As the Cardinals introduce veteran catcher Austin Romine to the time-share behind the plate, Andrew Knizner is likely to continue as Mikolas’ catcher. Marmol has not shied from pairing the two together because of the comfort they’ve had as a battery. The manager stressed that Mikolas would have success throwing to any catcher, but that he sees a benefit to keeping Knizner behind the plate for Mikolas’ starts.
In nine starts together this season, the duo has an ERA of 3.24 with a higher strikeout rate (50 in 58 1/3 innings) than Mikolas had in fewer games with Yadier Molina. Opponents were hitting .199 against Mikolas with Knizner as his target.
