Miles Mikolas threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings as the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Washington Nationals 8-1 Thursday night.

Mikolas (5-6) allowed just two hits while striking out six batters and walking one. This was a dramatic turnaround from his previous two starts, when he allowed 14 runs on 17 hits in 10 innings.

Willson Contreras hit a homer and scored twice for the Cardinals, who took two of three games from the Nationals. Alec Burleson drove in two runs, Brendan Donovan had two runs and an RBI, and Masyn Winn had two doubles and an RBI.

Nationals starter Michael Soroka (3-7) allowed two runs on four hits and two walks in four innings. He needed 91 pitches to get his 12 outs.

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Donovan hit a single, raced to third on Winn’s double and scored on Burleson’s groundout.

St. Louis increased its lead to 2-0 in the third inning. Donovan hit a single, moved up on a wild pitch and scored on Burleson’s single.

After allowing CJ Abrams’ double leading off the game, Mikolas retired 13 straight batters until Paul DeJong hit a one-out single in the fifth inning.

The Cardinals broke the game open with five runs in the sixth inning. Contreras led off with a single and moved to third on Lars Nootbaar’s ground-rule double.

Nolan Arenado poked an RBI single through the right side of the pulled-in infield. After Nolan Gorman walked, Yohel Pozo hit an RBI single, then Victor Scott II grounded into a forceout to score another run.

Donovan hit a sacrifice fly. Scott stole second base and scored on Winn’s double to make it 7-0.

Contreras increased the margin to 8-0 with his seventh-inning homer.

Washington broke through in the eighth inning. Daylen Lile went to third on Drew Millas’ single and scored on Jacob Young’s fielder’s choice grounder to cut the deficit to 8-1.

–Field Level Media