ST. LOUIS ¨C Allowed to head home early on Wednesday night so that he could get a good night¡¯s sleep before pitching Thursday¡¯s series finale against the Brewers, Cardinals veteran right-hander Miles Mikolas found himself screaming at the TV and living and dying with each pitch as he watched his team¡¯s 10th-inning nailbiter.

With his wife and kids back in Florida for the start of the school year, Mikolas had his spacious suburban St. Louis house all to himself, meaning he was free to yell as loudly as he wanted. And when Nolan Arenado ended that game with a walk-off grand slam, Mikolas said he screamed with joy while running around the couch.

However, it was during that impromptu in-house celebration that Mikolas said it dawned on him the responsibility he held for Thursday¡¯s game after the Cardinals finally found some feel-good momentum it could possibly build off of.

¡°I¡¯m biting my nails on the couch, running around the living room and jumping up and down, but I knew right then that was the kind of momentum I wanted to carry into this game, and I was able to do that early on by throwing strikes and being aggressive,¡± Mikolas said after throwing six scoreless innings that paved the way for the Cardinals¡¯ 3-0 defeat of the Brewers at Busch Stadium on Thursday.

¡°[My family] was back in Florida, so the house was as quiet as a mouse ¡­ except for me screaming at the TV. It was nice to see us win like that and then follow it up with a win today.¡±

The Cardinals, who are 10 games back in the division race and 4 1/2 games behind in the chase for the final Wild Card slot in the NL, won back-to-back games for the first time since Aug. 6-7 after rookie Victor Scott II recorded the first three-hit day of his MLB career and Mikolas limited the Brewers to just two hits and a walk while recording 11 ground-ball outs.

When the Cardinals won in dramatic fashion on Wednesday, manager Oliver Marmol talked about the transformative power that victory could potentially have and how it could potentially spark something inside of a club that dropped seven of eight games before Wednesday. When the Cardinals found a way to break open a scoreless game by grinding out at-bats in a three-run seventh, Marmol said it told him all he needed to know about the resolve left in his squad.

¡°There¡¯s a good vibe and energy in that clubhouse as far as how they are attacking every day,¡± said Marmol, whose pitching staff didn¡¯t allow a hit to the Brewers between the first and ninth innings. ¡°I said [Wednesday] that all you can do is stay present and go one pitch at a time, and our guys are not giving a whole lot away. ¡­ That¡¯s a good [Milwaukee] team across the way and they¡¯ve been playing good baseball, so to take that series, it¡¯s important.¡±

Mikolas came into Thursday having allowed at least three runs in each of his last four outings ¨C none of them wins. However, he knew it would be important to attack the Brewers¡¯ hitters while keeping the ball out of the middle of the plate. He used a darting sinker to keep the Brewers off-balance and to get himself out of mini-jams in the first and fourth innings ¨C the only times Milwaukee got runners in scoring position against him.

¡°We used the sinker a lot today because I felt like the last time out against the Dodgers, I had some good movement on that pitch and we wanted to keep it rolling today,¡± said Mikolas, who threw 33 four-seam fastballs and 22 sinkers on Thursday, per Baseball Savant. ¡°[The Brewers] are a team that doesn¡¯t swing at much outside the zone, so I was just pounding that sinker down and letting them swing.¡±

Despite the Cardinals¡¯ recent struggles that pushed them to the brink of playoff contention, Mikolas said he is still tremendously confident that the squad has the talent and toughness to battle their way back into the fight for a postseason berth. After all, Mikolas said, he was a part of the Cardinals team that won 17 in a row in 2021 to slingshot it into the playoffs.

¡°I¡¯d rather not wait until we need to win 17 in a row, but I think with the pitchers in this rotation and the young guys stepping up, I think it¡¯s very possible for us to go on a good run here,¡± Mikolas proclaimed. ¡°Whether that¡¯s 17 in a row, or 10, or five in a row, lose a game and win five more. This is a team capable of catching fire and being dangerous down the stretch.¡±