Miles Mikolas pitched seven shutout innings and Jordan Walker had a solo home run among his two hits to lift the visiting St. Louis Cardinals to a 3-0 victory against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday.
The Cardinals scored the only run they would need in the second inning, stringing together three singles over a four-batter span. Paul DeJong provided the last of them, lining an RBI base hit to center field.
St. Louis’ pitching limited Chicago to seven singles. Giovanny Gallegos allowed one hit in the eighth inning before Jordan Hicks stranded two runners in the ninth to notch his seventh save of the season.
Walker homered in the top of the ninth inning to provide a valuable insurance run.
Mikolas (5-5) permitted four hits and fanned six while throwing 71 of his 95 pitches for strikes. He earned his first victory since pitching eight shutout innings against Kansas City on May 30. Mikolas went 0-4 with a 6.07 ERA over five June starts and was coming off a no-decision in Miami on Monday.
Saturday’s performance marked Mikolas’ 11th consecutive start of at least five innings. He retired the first seven White Sox he faced to start the game before Oscar Colas singled with one out in the third inning. Eloy Jimenez, Andrew Vaughn and Colas had two hits apiece for the White Sox.
Chicago collected two more singles with one out in the fourth inning but didn’t score. Cardinals left fielder Lars Nootbaar made a leaping catch on the warning track to rob Vaughn of extra bases for the second out, and Mikolas induced Jake Burger to ground into a forceout.
Righty Touki Toussaint (0-2) kept the White Sox afloat, throwing five innings of two-run, five-hit ball with one walk and five strikeouts.
Still, a miscue in the fifth proved costly for Toussaint. Toussaint’s balk with one out in the inning sent St. Louis’ Ivan Herrera from second base to third. Herrera scored on a Brendan Donovan groundout later in the at-bat to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.
Nolan Arenado joined Walker with two hits and Dylan Carlson walked three times for the Cardinals.
–Field Level Media
