Facing gauntlet, Cards searching for ways to 'step up'

ST. LOUIS -- With an eye toward the numbers, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol has routinely had a quick hook with pitcher Miles Mikolas most of the season, often taking him out of games even when he still had more outs in his strong 6-foot-4 frame.

On Friday, with the Cardinals in possession of a two-run lead and Mikolas having twirled a solid first five innings, Marmol went against his usual patterns and stuck with the veteran right-hander to start the sixth. As it turns out, that singular decision played a major role in costing the Cardinals a win that they desperately needed and tarnished an otherwise strong Mikolas outing.

Mikolas needed just five innings to strike out a season-high seven -- including five of them looking -- but the third time through the order gave him fits, as it has so often this season. The Dodgers got a solo home run from Mookie Betts and two slow rollers on the infield for hits to jump-start a five-run sixth inning that lifted them to a 7-6 defeat of the Cards at steamy Busch Stadium.

Previous stats explain why the Cardinals have tried to limit Mikolas’ exposure late in games this season. Whereas foes have hit .251 and slugged .382 against the veteran the first time through the order, that production jumps to a .287 average and .735 slugging the third time through the order.

“Obviously, the more times they see your stuff on any given night is going to give [opposing hitters] a little bit of an advantage,” Mikolas said. “I know statistically, just about every pitcher is not as great the third time through, so that plays into it a little.”

The rough sixth inning proved especially painful for the Cardinals, who lost their fifth straight game and for the 10th time in their past 14. Combined with Milwaukee’s defeat of Cleveland, the Cardinals fell a season-worst 10 games back of the lead in the NL Central. The Cards are actually worse off now than they were on May 11, when they lost their seventh straight and fell nine games back of the Brewers before kickstarting a two-month stretch that put them back in the race. Already trailing the Mets and Giants in the race for the NL’s final Wild Card spot, the Cardinals lost even more ground in a game that slipped away in an instant on Friday.

“I mean, the job doesn’t really change all year long,” said reliever Andrew Kittredge, who is tied for first in MLB in holds, but surrendered a three-run home run to Dodgers center fielder Kevin Kiermaier in the game-turning sixth inning after relieving Mikolas. “We’re looking at the standings now and we know what [the deficit] is. But as far as the bullpen goes, our job remains the same. We just try to be as consistent as we can be.”

Friday’s loss came as the Cardinals were starting a 22-game stretch where they will face teams with winning records. After this three-game series against the NL West-leading Dodgers, the Cardinals get the Brewers, Twins, Padres, Yankees, Brewers again and Mariners. If the Cardinals are going to stay in the playoff chase, they are going to have to prove that they can beat likely playoff teams.

“You either step up to the challenge or you’re done,” Marmol said prior to the loss. “There’s no other way of looking at it or talking around it. It’s super simple -- you’re playing tough teams and you either step up and do what you have to do, or you go home early.”

Mikolas seemed poised to give the Cardinals a good shot at winning with the way he had the Dodgers off balance from the start. He opened the game by fanning Shohei Ohtani to end an 11-pitch at-bat and getting Betts looking on a high sweeper. He caught Will Smith looking in the second inning and Freddie Freeman gave up too soon on a tailing slider for a third strike in the third. And when Mikolas breezed through the fifth inning, he had retired 11 straight batters.

At that point, Mikolas was at 84 pitches. This season, foes had hit .344 against him on pitches 51-75, but just .239 on pitches 76-100 -- numbers reflected in the team’s reluctance of letting him get that deep too often. On Friday, he started the sixth and it proved to be the team’s undoing.

“I’m never going to say I don’t have gas in the tank,” Mikolas said. “But if you ask me about bringing in [Kittredge], I’d say go ahead, because our bullpen has been locked down, airtight all year. I trust that dude 10 out of 10 times in that situation.”