Friday’s Game Report: Rays 10, Cardinals 6
By Rob Rains
The Miles Mikolas’ 2025 road show continued on Friday night in Tampa as he offered up hit after hit after hit.
The Cardinals did not enjoy the performance, however, as Mikolas allowed more hits (10) than he got outs (eight) and the early attack carried the Rays to the victory. He gave up two of the Rays four home runs in failing to make it out of the third inning.
It continued what has been a bad season away from Busch Stadium for Mikolas, who fell to 0-5 on the road with two no-decisions since May 28.
In his 13 road starts this season, Mikolas has allowed 45 earned runs in 59 2/3 innings, an ERA of 6.79. Opponents have posted a .327 average against Mikolas in those games (84-of-257) with 17 home runs.
Twelve of the 18 Tampa batters that Mikolas faced reached base, with two of the outs he recorded coming on baserunning mistakes by the Rays.
One of the few highlights in the game for the Cardinals was the first two career hits for Nathan Church, including his first home run.
Here is how Friday night’s game broke down:
At the plate: The Cardinals trailed 7-2 before a four-run rally in the seventh closed the gap to 7-6. Church’s homer followed a leadoff single from Jordan Walker and Willson Contreras added his 19th home run later in the inning, another two-run shot. He has homered in each of his last three games … That turned out to the last hit in the game for the Cardinals, whose first two RBIs came from Yohel Pozo and Thomas Saggese … Church popped out in his first at-bat, extending his streak without a hit to 15 at-bats to begin his career, before he lined a single to left in the fifth.
On the mound: The two home runs off Mikolas, one each in the first and second inning, increased the number of homers Mikolas has allowed this season to 23 as he was charged with five runs … Carson Williams, making his major-league debut for the Rays, homered off Ryan Fernandez in the seventh and Junior Caminero homered off Jorge Alcala in the eighth as the Rays scored in six of the eight innings that they batted.
Key stat: One of the Rays’ runs was unearned because of a throwing error by Nolan Gorman. It was the fifth error by Gorman in 17 games this month and his seventh of the season, six of which have occurred when he was playing third base.
Worth noting: Alec Burleson was in the original lineup but was a late scratch because of soreness in his wrist, a result of an awkward swing in Thursday night’s game. Church was not in the original lineup but then started in center, with Lars Nootbaar moving to left … John King made his second rehab appearance for Memphis on Friday night and needed 20 pitches to get two outs, giving up a hit and a run.
Up next: The Cardinals will have a rare Saturday off because of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game next to the Rays’ stadium on Saturday night. The series will conclude on Sunday, with Matthew Liberatore the scheduled starter.
Follow Rob Rains on X @RobRains
The post Friday’s Game Report: Rays 10, Cardinals 6 appeared first on News from Rob Rains, STLSportsPage.com.