‘It stinks’: Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas falls one strike short of no-hitter

It’s been 21 years since the St Louis Cardinals pitched a no-hitter. Miles Mikolas needed one more strike.

The right-hander didn’t give up a hit until Cal Mitchell doubled with two outs in the ninth inning Tuesday night, and the St Louis Cardinals routed the Pittsburgh Pirates 9-1 to sweep a doubleheader.

“I’m a little over it. I mean it stinks, to get that close and then kind of come up empty-handed,” Mikolas said. “That’s a great outing. I’ll be real proud that I gave the bullpen kind of another night off. I know we need it with the doubleheader. I’m happy but deep down it kind of stinks.”

Miles Mikolas loses a no hitter with two strikes in the 9th inning pic.twitter.com/GuPSZSAt8v

Mitchell drove a 2-2 curveball over the head of Gold Glove center-fielder Harrison Bader as he tried to make a running catch with his back to home plate.

“If he can’t get it, nobody can except maybe one of those guys in the stands when they have that like three-foot glove, maybe that guy,” Mikolas said. “We’re playing shallow so they don’t kind of doink one in. I think that’s what you’re always guarding against is you don’t want to lose it cheap. The guy hit a ball to the track, I’ll give it to him. And it was a good pitch. I’m more OK with that then if the dude bloops a broken-bat bleeder in there somewhere.”

The ball bounced on the warning track 383 feet from the plate and over the wall in straightaway center for a ground-rule double.

“It went to the left of my glove, kind of curled back,” Bader said. “I was working really hard to try to make up some ground. So yeah, just sucks. But it is what it is.”

The hit came on the 129th pitch from Mikolas. He was lifted for Packy Naughton, who got the final out to hand the Pirates their ninth