By its final out, one of the most compelling ballgames played this season at Busch Stadium had included at least three ovations, 17 pitches at 100 mph or faster, two perfect starts through three innings, a no-hitter tease, one vibrant double play by Nolan Arenado, and a grand total of three runs, all of them scored in the ninth inning.
The buzzing crowd saw so much of everything except the one thing most came to see.
A Cardinals’ victory.
“Probably one of the louder Tuesdays we’ve had in awhile from the crowd, which is great,” Arenado said late Tuesday of the paid attendance of 34,278. “School’s out. So, that’s money. That was nice. We feed off our crowd. We enjoy playing in an environment that’s a little loud. I understand we have to start winning some ballgames to create that too.”
Started by Miles Mikolas on the home side and Pittsburgh rookie sensation Paul Skenes on the other, a scoreless duel reached the ninth inning and then came undone on the host Cardinals. Closer Ryan Helsley’s two four-pitch walks, the first of which led off the inning, greased the bases for the Pirates to score two runs on two productive outs and win, 2-1, at Busch.
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In the top of the ninth inning, Masyn Winn gloved a sharp grounder but got an off-center grip on the ball and threw a cutter home that catcher Pedro Pages couldn’t smother for the out. That fielder’s choice allowed the first run of the game to score, and a sacrifice fly gave Pittsburgh a 2-0 lead for closer David Bednar. Nolan Gorman slugged his 15th homer of the season to cleave the lead in half on Bednar. The right-hander finished off the inning, hurdling over a catcher’s interference to do so.
The game ended with the tying run at second base, outfielder Michael Siani, a left-handed batter, striking out, and arguably or evidently a bench exhausted of a better matchup.
Within the entertaining and taut ballgame, two Cardinals continued recent upward trends that are essential to the team’s ongoing quest to surmount .500. And the club again showed how, beneath the surface of several things going well, all of the injuries and wrinkles in the roster can limit choices off the bench. All of those things were stuffed into a good, old-fashioned pitchers’ duel between a twentysomething and a thirtysomething, between a rookie bringing the heat and a veteran bringing the savvy, between a mustache new to the majors and a mustache long established as one of the chicest in the majors.
“It’s fun; it’s one of those all-eyes-are-going-to-be-on-this game,” Mikolas said. “Everybody wants to see him pitch. He’s got exciting stuff. Mustache is a little light, though. Incredible stuff. He’s young, though. My mustache wasn’t that good when I was young, so I’m sure it will fill in for him.”
To dig in and go beyond the full box score, let’s play a game.
Here are two truths and one underlying question.
Truth 1: Mikolas has momentum
What can be traced back to a game of catch that loosened his delivery or the stretching of strings in the bullpen to help him recalibrate his low pitches has produced Mikolas’ steadiest, strongest stretch of the season.
Mikolas pitched 5 1/3 perfect innings and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. His season-high seven innings included a season-low one hit allowed. As Skenes dazzled the radar gun with the velocity of his pitches and impressed the Cardinals with the variety of his pitches, Mikolas matched the rookie zero for zero, only pitched deeper into the game and better.
“He was on the attack,” manager Oliver Marmol said. “He was able to get back into counts, make pitches. Just commanded the baseball well once he got back into counts. Got a lot of soft contact. Some defensive swings. It just looked really, really good for him.”
After reaching mid-May with a 6.19 ERA, the Cardinals’ opening day starter has thrown four consecutive quality starts. He’s slashed almost 1 ½ runs off his ERA in his past 25 innings by limiting opponents to eight runs total.
Mikolas explained recently that he was trying to muscle his way out of the early-season struggles and that only compounded them. While playing catch, he realized less might be more – because the less he tried to create movement, the less he tried to generate oomph for velocity, the better both became. He decided to pitch like he played catch.
“Just trying to get outs anyway I can – sinker, four-seamer, slider,” Mikolas said. “If it means moving arm angles around a little bit trying to put a little extra sink on it here and there, a little extra run on something, I’m up for it. I’m getting older. I never did and don’t throw real hard anymore. Using all my tricks to get outs these days.”
Mikolas retired the first 16 Pirates he faced.
Thirteen did not get the ball past an infielder.
As he matched Skenes perfect inning for perfect inning through three, Mikolas had as many strikeouts as the flamethrower with the novel pitch, the “splinker.” Mikolas got there a different way than Skenes – but a familiar way the veteran starter has now repeated over four consecutive starts. He feels in a place to continue and repeat. He’s just not sure how eager he is to repeat what’s happened twice now: Mikolas flirts with a no-hitter into the late innings against the Pirates only to have a ball hit to center field end it. What happened one out shy of the no-hitter in 2022 against the Bucs came as Bryan Reynolds led off the seventh Tuesday with a triple off the center-field wall.
“I don’t know if I’d rather lose it a little earlier to take the sting away or get a couple more no-hit innings under my belt,” he said. “Either way, that’s tough, but a good outing.”
Truth 2: Arenado gaining his groove
What started with three home runs on the most recent road trip, continued during this home stand with some signature defensive plays for the Cardinals’ third baseman.
Against his former team, the Colorado Rockies, Arenado had a jump-throw from foul territory for an out that mimicked so many of his highlight-reel plays at the hot corner. On Tuesday, he vaporized the Pirates’ attempt to bunt when he was able to field it and get the lead out at third base. When Pittsburgh got that triple and a hit batter from Mikolas, a line drive destined to produce at least one run found Arenado’s glove instead. He dove toward the third-base line, snared the ball, and politely tapped third base with his glove to double-up the runner and end the inning for Mikolas.
“There is nothing worse than making an error and they score because of that error,” Arenado said. “When I’m locked-in on defense it gets my mind away from hitting. I know who I am on the defensive side. I know what I can do and I’m trying to play really good two-way ball like I have my whole career.”
When Arenado returned years ago to his high school, El Toro High in California, the coach told him all about a catcher bound for Air Force Academy. That catcher headed to the campus in Colorado Springs became the pitcher who starred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and led LSU a year ago to the College World Series. Like Matt Chapman and Arenado, Skenes is destined to be celebrated as another El Toro High big leaguer, and Tuesday was Arenado’s first glimpse at the latest star from his alma matter.
Arenado got the first hit of the game off Skenes’ fastball when he lifted a 99-mph four-seamer to center for a single in the fifth. That rally faltered when Skenes blitzed through the bottom of the Cardinals’ lineup. In the seventh, Arenado doubled off Skenes to end the rookie’s start.
The two hits gave him his third multi-hit game of the month.
He also got his first double.
“I’ve walked a bit, too,” he added. “I’ve got to find ways to continue to get better, have better at-bats like I did today, play the defense like I played today. And I know if I can do a better job, I can help this team win ballgames.”
Said Mikolas: “Some days it seems like he has a little extra chip on his shoulder. Going out there, really fighting out there – I think that’s what we saw.”
1 Underlying Question: Bench selection
By the time the game reached Siani with two outs and two on in the ninth inning, the decisions leading to him taking that at-bat had already been made.
Injuries to Tommy Edman (wrist) and Lars Nootbaar (oblique), not to mention Willson Contreras’ fractured forearm, have thinned the matchup options on the Cardinals’ bench and limited some choices due to other concerns. Those include backing up rookie Winn at shortstop with veteran Brandon Crawford.
When Pittsburgh brought lefty Aroldis Chapman to relieve Skenes in the seventh, Marmol countered with right handed-hitting infielder Jose Fermin for designated hitter Matt Carpenter, a left-handed batter. Marmol had switch-hitter Dylan Carlson stashed to use as a pinch-hitter for Siani if the inning stretched that far with Chapman still on the mound. He wanted Carlson to hit from the right side, where he’s had more success.
“You have Chapman come in there – you take your shot with Fermin,” the manager explained. “You know if it comes back around, regardless of handedness, right or left, (Ivan) Herrera takes a pretty good at-bat.”
In the ninth, Herrera tagged in for Pages.
He reached on a catcher’s interference only after the Cardinals’ challenged the strikeout call that would have ended the game. Instead, Fermin, who walked, and Herrera were on base. Both entered the game as pinch-hitters, and now both symbolized how the Cardinals only had left-handed options available with Siani up to face right-handed Bednar. Crawford was told to get ready in case.
But the best matchup was arguably counterintuitive.
Crawford and Carlson combined were 0 for 6 against Bednar in their career.
Small sample size to be sure, but a sliver of a larger factor with Bednar – reverse splits. The Bucs’ longtime closer has held left-handed batters to a .173 average this season. Since March 2021, he’s held lefties to a .196 average and a .303 slugging percentage. In that same time period, right-handed batters have hit .218 with a .360 slugging percentage. Left-handed batters have more strikeouts vs. Bednar (112) than total bases (102) in their 336 at-bats. Add one to each with the strikeout that ended the game.
All of the pinch-hit options on the bench were left-handed, too.
Which could be why the Cardinals’ front office stirred talk this past weekend of looking to add a right handed-hitting center fielder. That could be a reference to Edman or an addition to the July shopping list.
“You deal with what you’ve got,” Marmol said.
Until a deal changes it.