CHICAGO — One day after the Cardinals watched a starting pitcher leave the game early due to injury and the bullpen blew a pair of leads, they bounced back behind a stellar start from Miles Mikolas, and bullpen pillars Giovanny Gallegos and Jordan Hicks came on in relief and secured a series-tying victory.
The Cardinals scored a run in three separate innings, including the top of the ninth, and their pitching staff made that enough as they registered a 3-0 win over the Chicago White Sox in the second game of a three-game set, the final series before the MLB All-Star break, at Guaranteed Rate Field on Saturday afternoon. That evened the series at a game apiece and set up a rubber match for Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinals (37-52) got seven scoreless innings from Mikolas less than 24 hours after the pitching staff gave up eight runs in a three-inning span.
Cardinals rookie outfielder Jordan Walker went 2 for 4 and belted his eighth home run of the season, and All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado also went 2 for 4. Arenado snapped a streak of seven consecutive extra-base hits with his second-inning single.
Dylan Carlson (two walks) reached base for the seventh straight game, and he logged his third multi-walk day in his last four games.
Rookie catcher Ivan Herrera hit safely in back-to-back games for the first time in his major-league career. All five of his career hits have come against Chicago teams, including two against the Chicago Cubs last season.
Gallegos pitched the eighth inning and allowed just one hit and struck out two. Home plate umpire Lance Barrett wiped down Gallegos prior to his first pitch of the inning and then again in the middle of the inning, apparently concerned about a potential foreign substance on Gallegos’ forearms.
Hicks pitched the ninth and recorded his seventh save of the season. Though the White Sox (38-53) put two men on base and brought the potential tying run to the plate with one out in the ninth.
However, Hicks got a strikeout and a fly ball to end the game and strand both runners on base.
Mikolas blanks White Sox
Mikolas held the White Sox scoreless for seven innings, the third time this season he’d gone at least seven innings without giving up a run in a start this season – the first since he tossed eight scoreless against the Kansas City Royals on May 30.
The right-hander didn’t walk a batter, allowed just four hits (all singles) and struck out six in seven innings. He turned the game over to the bullpen with a 2-0 lead after seven innings. He’d throw 95 pitches (71 strikes).
Mikolas had allowed four or more runs in four of his previous five starts.
Settling for one
The Cardinals grabbed a one-run lead in the second inning by virtue of Paul DeJong’s RBI single off White Sox starter Touki Toussaint. That snapped an 0-for-13 slump for DeJong and gave him his second RBI of the road trip.
With a runner on and one out, Walker singled to put runners on first and third with one out. DeJong then poked a 1-1 sinker into center field to drive in the game’s first run. That left a pair of men on base in Walker and DeJong.
After Herrera struck out, Carlson drew a two-out walk that loaded the bases.
However, the Cardinals weren’t able to turn the opening into a significant gap. Leadoff hitter Brendan Donovan struck out swinging to end the inning as the Cardinals stranded the bases loaded and had to settle for the one-run advantage.
Making the most out of a mistake
Herrera singled to start the fifth inning, which put the leadoff hitter aboard for the Cardinals for just the second time in the game. The first time came in the second inning when the Cardinals also scored.
Herrera singled up the middle, and then he advanced to second on soft grounder that White Sox third baseman and St. Louis native Jake Burger had to charge in to field. Toussaint committed a balk that pushed Herrera to third base with one out.
Donovan hit a high chopper on the infield that left the third baseman Burger no hope of throwing out Herrera at the plate. Burger threw to first for the force out as Donovan successfully got the runner in from third base.
That gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead, which they held onto until they added a third run in the top of the ninth.
