ST. LOUIS — On a sweltering 99-degree day at Busch Stadium Saturday, Cardinals right-hander Miles Mikolas, who comes from Jupiter, Fla., where it is this hot on a lot of days, had the cooling tonic for a well-ridden Cardinals bullpen. Seven innings.
In the past eight games, only one Cardinals starter has made it through at least seven innings. It has been Mikolas twice. He allowed only two more singles over seven innings and threw two double-play balls as the Cardinals jumped on Cincinnati early and posted an 11-3 victory.
Mikolas has allowed two earned runs or fewer in seven of his past eight starts.
The win was the Cardinals’ sixth in eight meetings with the second-division Reds and was their second in two days here, giving them their first series win out of three on this homestand.
Paul Goldschmidt, ending a 17-game drought, smacked his 20th homer of the season and 300th of his career to score Tommy Edman ahead of him in the second inning. Lars Nootbaar, just back from the minors again, ripped a three-run homer off Hunter Strickland in the eighth extending his hitting streak to six games, two of which Nootbaar didn't start.
Edman, who had his fourth multi-hit game out of his past five, scored three runs in the first three innings against the Reds, who appear to have run out of steam after taking two out of three from the Yankees in an exhausting series in New York before coming here.
The Cardinals did suffer a casualty, though. Shortstop Edmundo Sosa jammed his left leg into the wall in front of the left-field box seats in the eighth inning as he failed to catch up with Joey Votto's foul fly. X-Rays revealed no fracture.
The Cardinals had four batters hit by pitches in the game, including Andrew Knizner, who was nailed in the left elbow on a slider by Strickland after Nootbaar's homer. Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson then had to get out of the way of an up-and-in pitch from Johan Oviedo in the ninth.
