Mikolas' spring ERA is down to 6.59 after Friday's five-inning blanking of the Nationals, an outing in which he allowed three hits, issued a walk and recorded two strikeouts.
Although that figure isn't pretty by any means, it's a significant improvement, considering he'd given up 10 earned runs over his first pair of outings. In contrast, he's now generated consecutive scoreless starts. The key against a Nationals split squad, in manager Mike Matheny's view, was effective use of multiple pitches, according to Ben Frederickson and Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. "His breaking ball, he had a better feel," Matheny said. "He was throwing it where he wanted to. He was throwing some early strikes. Saw some good, hard (split-changeups)." Mikolas worked up to 79 pitches in the outing, getting 49 of his offerings into the strike zone. He'll look to keep building momentum for the regular season in a likely Wednesday start against the Marlins.