ST. LOUIS — Miles Mikolas had allowed just eight hits over his previous three games, covering 23 innings. And he had one win and two losses to show for those efforts.
Mikolas was in that same form again Saturday at Busch Stadium, limiting the Chicago Cubs to four hits and one run in six innings while fanning a season-high-tying nine before a second consecutive sellout crowd of 45,159 on a sweltering day. But he didn't win this one either although the Cardinals did, 5-3, after blowing a two-run lead.
Backup catcher Ivan Herrera hit a deep sacrifice fly to left in the eighth inning to send home pinch runner Edmundo Sosa from third with the go-ahead run. Sosa was running for Juan Yepez, who had doubled with one out off Mark Leiter, Jr,
Sosa had gone to third on a wild pitch and Harrison Bader had been hit by a pitch before Herrera's fly ball to the warning track. Bader tagged up and slid into second on the play and then he scored on Tommy Edman's single.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol tried to cover the final three innings with his co-closers Giovanny Gallegos and Ryan Helsley. But, after Gallegos got through the seventh with the aid of a double play, he balked a runner to second in the eighth. Rafael Ortega hit several balls hard but foul during a lengthy at-bat before finding a slider to his liking and cracking a game-tying two-run homer to right. It was Gallegos' 31st pitch.
Helsley, after walking two and throwing a wild pitch, struck out Nico Hoerner to end the eighth to keep the game tied. Hoerner had not struck out in 28 at-bats. In the ninth, Helsley, who also threw more than 30 pitches, gained the win as he worked past a two-out single in the ninth.
