Cal Mitchell breaks up no-hit bid by Miles Mikolas in 9th as Cardinals crush Pirates

The outcome was long decided when Miles Mikolas reached the 100-pitch mark, yet the St. Louis Cardinals had no intention of pulling the 33-year-old right-hander from the game.

Mikolas was one out away from making history when Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Cal Mitchell hit a 2-2 curveball for a double over Cardinals center fielder Harrison Bader that bounced over the center field wall.

Mitchell broke up the no-hit bid by Mikolas on his career-high 129th pitch, but the Cardinals crushed the Pirates, 9-1, Tuesday night in the second game of a split doubleheader at Busch Stadium.

“We’re going to have a ton of learning moments,” Pirates manager Derek Shelton said. “This was a big one and big one for Cal Mitchell, who came into the game late and was able to get a big knock.”

Mikolas threw 115 pitches through eight innings, yet Cardinals rookie manager Oli Marmol left him in the game to chase history. Mikolas dealt with right forearm soreness the past two seasons, though this marked his fourth game with 100-plus pitches this season.

Mikolas allowed one unearned run on one hit and one walk while striking out six in 8⅔ innings. In the ninth, Mikolas retired Michael Perez on a groundout to third and Tucupita Marcano on a fly ball to right.

Mitchell said he was getting coached up just before hitting a double 383 feet to center to break up the no-hit bid.

“I just tried to take some deep breaths,” said Mitchell, who replaced Bryan Reynolds in the bottom of the seventh inning. “The crowd was loud. They were all rooting for their guy. I’m glad I was able to settle myself down enough to have a composed at-bat and come through.”

Mikolas was attempting to become the first Cardinals pitcher to throw a no-hitter since Bud Smith against the San Diego Padres on Sept. 3, 2001 and the first to throw one in St. Louis since Bob Forsch held the Montreal Expos hitless in a 3-0 win on Sept. 26, 1983 at old Busch Stadium. The last Cardinals pitcher to throw a no-hitter against the Pirates was Hall of Famer Bob Gibson, who struck out 10 in an 11-0 win on Aug. 14, 1971 at Three Rivers Stadium.

The Pirates avoided being no-hit for a second time this season. Cincinnati Reds right-handers Hunter Greene and Art Warren combined to throw eight hitless innings in a 1-0 loss to the Pirates on May 15 at PNC Park, as Rodolfo Castro scored from third on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice.

After dropping both games of the split doubleheader — the Cardinals won the matinee, 3-1 — the Pirates have now lost nine consecutive heading into Wednesday’s series finale.

“We’re in a tough stretch and we’ve got to keep grinding through it,” Shelton said. “I felt like up until today we had actually played pretty good baseball. … We just got handled a little bit.”

The Cardinals gave Mikolas a 7-0 cushion after two innings, as Paul Goldschmidt (4 for 4) homered in each of his first two at-bats, following a two-run shot in the first inning with a three-run bomb in the second.

It should come as no surprise that Goldschmidt also homered in the first game, as well as Monday’s 7-5 win. In the first three games of the series, Goldschmidt is 9 for 12 with five extra-base hits and nine RBIs.

The top of the Cardinals’ order did damage in the first two innings, collecting six runs on six hits against Pirates right-hander Bryse Wilson. Of the first 15 batters Wilson faced, seven Cardinals made contact with an exit velocity of 101.5 mph or higher. Goldschmidt’s homers were clocked at 104.4 and 107 mph, and Albert Pujols lined out to second at 108.2.

Tommy Edman sent Wilson’s first pitch, a four-seam fastball, over the right field fence for his seventh homer and a 1-0 lead. Brendan Donovan followed with a single to left, setting up Goldschmidt’s 408-foot two-run homer over Reynolds for a 3-0 lead.

Wilson started the second by hitting Harrison Bader with a pitch. Edman singled to right and Donovan followed with an RBI single to right for a 4-0 lead, then Goldschmidt drilled a 2-1 changeup for a 424-foot homer and a 7-0 Cardinals lead.

It was a rough start for Wilson, who was optioned to Triple-A Indianapolis after giving up seven runs on six hits in 1⅔ innings in an 18-4 loss to the Cardinals on May 22. Recalled to serve as the 27th man for the doubleheader, Wilson allowed seven runs on 10 hits, including three homers, on 96 pitches in five innings.

Shelton said the problem was that Wilson’s breaking ball looked flat and was up in the middle of the plate.

“You cannot do that to this lineup and you definitely cannot do it to Goldschmidt,” Shelton said. “That guy’s on another planet right now with the way he’s swinging the bat.”

Mikolas wasn’t perfect. The Pirates scored in the fourth, when Reynolds reached second after left fielder Juan Yepez misplayed a fly ball. Reynolds advanced to third on Jack Suwinski’s groundout to second and scored on Daniel Vogelbach’s grounder to third to cut the Cardinals’ lead to 7-1.

A spectacular defensive play by second baseman Nolan Gorman in the sixth kept the no-hitter alive. Gorman made a backhand stop of a Marcano grounder near second and threw across his body to beat the speedy Marcano to first. Suwinski and Vogelbach both made hard contact in the seventh that Bader caught at the wall.

The Cardinals added two more runs in the sixth when rookie left fielder Canaan Smith-Njigba — making his starting debut — chased Gorman’s fly ball toward the foul line but couldn’t catch the ball. It dropped for a double that scored Donovan and Goldschmidt for a 9-1 lead.

Shelton is hoping the Pirates can find a way to prevent the losing streak from reaching double digits when Roansy Contreras starts against Jack Flaherty on Wednesday night.

“We just have to play better,” Shelton said. “We haven’t played horribly. We didn’t play well tonight. Obviously, we didn’t pitch well and didn’t swing the bats. On this trip, we’ve been in every game. We’ve got to get that big hit, we’ve got to execute a pitch to get us over that hump and get a victory.”