Mikolas searching for answers after another rocky start

PHILADELPHIA -- The Cardinals have to be concerned about right-hander Miles Mikolas. Yes, he gave them length on Friday night against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, but St. Louis lost the game, 7-2.

Mikolas was given a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning when Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run bomb over the right-center-field wall off left-hander Cristopher Sánchez. However, Mikolas ran into second-inning trouble as the Phillies took the lead by scoring three runs. Garrett Stubbs highlighted the scoring with a squibber down the left-field line for a two-run double.

Philadelphia added to its lead against Mikolas one inning later, when Bryce Harper scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Bryson Stott. The last run Mikolas allowed came in the sixth when Alec Bohm hit a solo homer over the left-field wall.

“[Mikolas] was up more than he would like, and that led to some hard contact,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “The first couple of runs on the ball down the third-base line cost him, but I felt like he pounded the zone enough -- but his pitches were up and some of them were hit pretty hard.”

“I made a few bad pitches,” Mikolas said. “I made a decent pitch -- full count -- and [Stubbs hits] a squibber down the line. There’s not much you can do about that. There are a few other pitches I would like to have back.”

Mikolas was expected to be the ace of this staff, but he has been inconsistent for most of the season. The month of August has not been kind to him. In fact, Mikolas has allowed 21 runs (20 earned) in 31 innings.

“Miles is able to throw any pitches at any count,” Marmol said. “He relies on mixing it and using the curveball to keep you off-balance, but he hasn’t been [able to get ground balls] as much as we have seen in the past. If you look at the ground-ball rate over the last several years, it’s been in the air more. If you are not missing bats and you are in the air, usually it isn’t a good combo. It’s something we are working on, and we will continue to work on it.”

Asked what he needs to do to fix his problems on the mound, Mikolas said, “I don’t really know. I gave up that grand slam to the Mets [last Saturday to Daniel Vogelbach]. That’s a pitch down. I think he has two hits all season with pitches down. So I don’t know. Maybe I need to pitch with a four-leaf clover in my back pocket or something like that.”

According to Baseball Savant, most of the pitches Mikolas would typically use to get ground balls have instead been hit hard this season. Entering Friday night, opposing hitters had a .342 batting average against his sinker and they were hitting .270 against his curveball. The only positive is that opposing hitters had a .226 batting average against his slider -- down from last year’s .239 average.

Sánchez, on the other hand, settled down after allowing Goldschmidt's first-inning homer. Sánchez retired 17 of the last 20 hitters he faced, relying on an effective changeup.

"I noticed they were looking for the sinker, so after studying the hitters and knowing what they wanted, I was able to make that adjustment,” Sánchez said.

The Cardinals’ last scoring opportunity against Sánchez came in the third inning. Tyler O’Neill led off with a double, but he was left stranded at third base after the heart of the order -- Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras -- didn’t come through.

"Sánchez pitched really well,” Marmol said. "Once they had a lead, it was tough to score on them for a reason.”