The reeling St. Louis Cardinals have been searching for a turning point during a downturn that saw them lose seven of eight to fall three games under .500.
Perhaps Nolan Arenado’s 10th-inning walk-off grand slam for a 10-6 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday could provide it.
“That was a big swing that could lead this group moving forward in a lot of ways,” Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said. “We needed that.”
St. Louis will try to build on its comeback victory Thursday afternoon in the finale of a three-game series at Busch Stadium. The Brewers won the opener 3-2 on Tuesday.
The Cardinals made another roster move Wednesday, sending slumping infielder Nolan Gorman to Triple-A Memphis and recalling infielder Jose Fermin, who reached base twice and scored twice in the victory.
Before the series, the Cardinals promoted Luken Baker from Memphis and released Brandon Crawford. Baker hit a two-run pinch-hit homer Wednesday in his first at-bat as the team’s new-look bench had a big game.
St. Louis will start Miles Mikolas (8-10, 5.41 ERA) in the series finale. After meeting the quality start metric in four of five starts in July, Mikolas has gone 0-2 with a 9.22 ERA this month.
In his last start, a 7-6 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday, Mikolas allowed two runs in the first five innings. Then he allowed three runs in the sixth inning, with two runs scoring after he left.
“As far as my last couple of starts go, this is the best I’ve felt in a while,” Mikolas said. “I had a good long bullpen session the other day. We had some extra days in between. I was able to do a little bit more in my bullpen, talking with (pitching coach) Dusty (Blake) and trying and get things buttoned up. It showed.”
Mikolas is 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA in two starts against Milwaukee this season. He has allowed eight runs on 15 hits in 10 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts and three walks.
He is 10-6 with a 4.09 ERA in 18 career appearances against the Brewers, including 17 starts.
The Brewers, who saw their six-game winning streak end Wednesday, will start Freddy Peralta (8-7, 4.00) while shooting for another series victory.
Peralta earned a 2-1 victory over the Cleveland Guardians in his last start Saturday. He allowed one run on four hits in six innings while walking two batters and striking out three.
He needed just 81 pitches to get 18 outs, but he didn’t object to manager Pat Murphy’s decision to go to the bullpen.
“I knew that we had the guys fresh behind me, and I was fine with that decision,” Peralta said. “We (made) the decision together, and for me, it was the best decision because we were winning by one run. They already saw me two times, some of them at the top of the lineup three times.”
Milwaukee won Peralta’s two starts against the Cardinals earlier this season, but he
didn’t factor into the decisions.
He held St. Louis to three runs on 12 hits in 12 innings while striking out 15 batters and walking only three. Peralta is 3-6 with a 5.25 ERA in 17 career outings against the Cardinals, including 13 starts.
–Field Level Media
