ST. LOUIS — The last time the Cardinals won consecutive games before Friday night, it was June 29 and St. Louis sat a season-best nine games over .500, filled with confidence.
An MLB-worst 5-13 stretch followed for the Cardinals to temper their excitement and seemingly put their playoff hopes in jeopardy. However, after thumping the Padres twice in as many nights to get back to within 1 1/2 games of the National League’s final Wild Card slot, hope is back in St. Louis.
“[Bouncing back] is what we’ve been doing all year,” said Winn. “We’re going to go through ruts because it’s a long season. But the consistency this offense has had [helps], and our pitching staff has been really good, too.
“We know that we’ve got a good squad. We’re all just grinding and making things happen.”
The Cardinals shut out San Diego despite the Padres hammering out 11 hits. It is the Cards’ first 11-hit shutout since Aug. 24, 1943, when they beat the Boston Braves, 1-0, in 10 innings. The last time St. Louis shut out a team with at least 11 hits in a nine-inning game was on Aug. 12, 1931, at Brooklyn.
Mikolas came into Friday in a 1-5 skid over seven starts that featured an unsightly 7.32 ERA and 13 homers allowed. On Friday, however, he scattered seven hits and pitched out of trouble in the third, fourth and fifth innings.
In the fourth inning, Xander Bogaerts ran into an out at second base on a routine fly ball to right field after he and Jackson Merrill had reached on hits. Mikolas then registered his only strikeout of the night by fanning Jake Cronenworth to end the threat.
“We definitely dodged it, and we got a little help with the baserunning play there with the out at second,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We got the punchout to get out of that inning. … Scattered some hits, but Miles had everything working. He mixed it and kept them off balance, and we made some nice plays, as well, in the outfield. Overall, a solid night.”
The Cardinals need to leapfrog the Giants and Reds before they can catch manager Mike Shildt’s Padres, who have lost four in a row near the end of their three-city road trip after the All-Star break. The Cards have two more against the Padres at steamy Busch Stadium and then face them again in San Diego in the first three games after Thursday’s MLB Trade Deadline.
“It’s big [to win the first two games of the series] because I’m sure they’re going to come out the next two days gunning for us, especially when we see them out in San Diego on their turf,” said Mikolas, who got five ground-ball outs in his best outing in weeks. “We still have a lot of unfinished business here and there.
“We’ve just got to play some good hard-nosed baseball because that’s a good team over there, and they’re a couple of games ahead of us for a reason. We’ve beaten them the last two games for a reason — because we’re a good strong ballclub here, as well. We’re going to fight as much as we can.”
The Cardinals’ bullpen — the team’s strength all season — shut down the Padres over the game’s final four innings. Stephen Matz, Phil Maton, JoJo Romero and Ryan Helsley — all candidates to be dealt away before the Deadline because of their solid work all season — allowed four hits and no walks combined.
Matz, who relieved Mikolas in the sixth, fielded his position nicely and started an inning-ending double play.
With his club struggling coming out of the break, Marmol was asked recently whether he still thought the Cardinals had what it took to stay in the playoff chase. He said it would be unwise to count out a Cardinals team that has repeatedly responded well to lulls.
“I like their overall attention to detail and fight, and I really like this group – more so than other years because of the way they approach every day,” Marmol said. “It’s different, and it’s headed in the right direction. And, because of that, I wouldn’t count them out of going on a run and making it interesting.”
