CINCINNATI (AP) — Nolan Gorman hit a tiebreaking double in the eighth inning and scored on a wild pitch, helping the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 on Thursday for their 13th win in 18 games.
Miles Mikolas (3-1) won his third straight decision, allowing five hits over seven scoreless innings, which matched his season high. He struck out five and walked none.
“Just focusing on keeping the ball down," Mikolas said. “That’s kind of what lets me get deeper into ballgames. I feel like I didn’t really wake up and find my better fastball until about the third inning. I think I had pretty good command early on.”
Giovany Gallegos gave up a two-out RBI single to Stuart Fairchild in the ninth before striking out Luke Maile for his fifth save in six chances.
St. Louis (23-29), which has rebounded after a 10-24 start, gave All-Stars Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado and Willson Contreras the afternoon off and still gained a split of the four-game series.
“We weren’t using them. They had a full day off,” manager Oliver Marmol said. "They deserve it. Other guys stepped up and it worked out.”
Cincinnati, last in the NL Central at 21-29, has lost seven of 10.
Tommy Edman, a switch-hitter, batted from the right side against right-hander Luke Weaver. Edman grounded out in the second and took a called third strike in the fifth from Weaver. Edman also hit righty on Tuesday against righty Graham Ashcraft and on Wednesday against right-hander Ben Lively.
He turned around and hit left-handed in the seventh against righty reliever Lucas Sims (1-1), striking out, and lined out hitting right-handed against righty Alan Busenitz in the ninth. Edman is 5 for 17 (.294) hitting right-handed against righties this season.
Edman started batting on righty against certain pitchers about two years ago.
Weaver gave up three hits over 6 1/3 shutout innings with six strikeouts and one walk.
“Everything has been feeling really good in my outings," he said. "There have been innings where I get a little sloppy. My changeup has been frustrating me a little bit. I put some work in on it this week to tweek it. Today it came to life. I got swings and misses. It was competitive.”
He was selected 27th overall by the Cardinals in the 2014 amateur draft.
“I haven’t faced the Cardinals since they traded me," Weaver said. "There’s only a few guys left over there but, yeah, you want to pitch well against them and be competitive.”
TJ Friedl, activated Tuesday from the 10-day injured list, singled leading off the sixth and was thrown out at the plate trying to score from third on Jonathan India’s grounder to third baseman Brendan Donovan.
St. Louis went ahead in the eighth when Lars Nootbaar singled with two outs, advanced on a wild pitch and scored on Gorman’s liner down the right-field line that extended his career-best hitting streak to 15 games (20 for 54, .370). Gorman scored on Sims' second wild pitch of the inning.
“He’s been hitting regardless of the situation,” Marmol said. “He’s not taking any pitches off. That was a big hit by him there. He runs toward those types of scenarios where he likes being counted on.”
WEB GEMS
Juan Yepez made a sliding catch of Maile’s sinking liner in the fifth and Fairchild made a leaping catch at the right-field wall to rob Paul DeJong of extra bases leading off the seventh.
SLUMPING STARS
Contreras is hitless in 19 at-bats Arenado is hitless in 10.
STAYING HOT
Cincinnati's Spencer Steer went 2 for 4 and extended his career-best hitting streak to eight games (14 for 34).
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: Yepez was hit on the left shoulder by a Weaver changeup in the seventh. He stayed in the game.
Reds: RHP Connor Overton underwent Tommy John surgery on Tuesday, manager David Bell said. Overton is scheduled to return on Friday to the team’s Goodyear, Arizona, training complex, where he had been working out before the procedure.
UP NEXT
Cardinals: LHP Matthew Liberatore (1-0) is to start Friday’s series opener at Cleveland in his second start an third appearance this season.
Reds: RHP Hunter Greene (0-4) is to be on the mound for Friday’s series opener at the Chicago Cubs.
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