How the St. Louis Cardinals rotation stacks up against Atlanta’s

Miles Mikolas vs. Dallas Keuchel

Both managers have announced who will be taking the mound for Game 1 of the NLDS, and Opening Day starter Miles Mikolas will accept the call to pitch in the Cardinals’ first playoff game since 2015.

Mikolas came onto the scene after a very solid 2018 season, where he finished sixth in the NL Cy Young race; and even secured a massive 5-year, $74-million extension from the Cardinals before the season began.

Mikolas has faced serious regression this season, though he hasn’t been horrible; he definitely hasn’t performed up to his expectations. Mikolas finishes the season with a 4.12 ERA and a 1.223 WHIP; which is mediocre.

The former All-Star had a drastic difference from his home/road splits. At Busch, he put together a very solid 3.01 ERA and his K/BB ratio was way higher at 5:1.

On the road was a different story, Mikolas totaled a 5.40 ERA with a 1.405 WHIP. There were multiple occasions where he even let up seven runs in a start. It’s weird why the Cardinals didn’t save him for Busch, instead of having to potentially make multiple starts on the road.

The Braves are sending former Cy Young winner Dallas Keuchel to the mound. Keuchel is in the middle of a solid season (well, half-season) with the Atlanta Braves, finishing his campaign with a 3.75 ERA.

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Keuchel has had an interesting 2019 season. Last winter, he hit free agency for the first time in his career. Keep in mind, his agent was Scott Boras; and Boras is one of the most arrogant agents in the industry. Keuchel and Boras didn’t budge on what they wanted-a long term contract for Keuchel, but teams weren’t willing to give Keuchel a long term contract, especially after facing some regression back in 2018.

Keuchel decided to hold out and not pitch for any team until he got his desired contract. Every five days, he threw a 95-pitch sim to keep himself in shape. Then in early June, the Braves rotation started to become a liability for them, and they decided to bring in Keuchel. Keuchel ended up accepting a 1-year deal with Atlanta, and will hit the free-agent market after the season ends; so there’s a chance we may see this circus again.

Dallas Keuchel is an interesting pitcher, he is very groundball reliant and lets up a lot of base hits. He has a pretty drastic ERA-FIP difference of .97. He has a very high WHIP of 1.367 and a very low K-BB rate, yet he still puts up solid numbers.

The way to beating Keuchel is through making contact and not striking out. Keuchel isn’t a strikeout artist, and he had he played the whole season; he would’ve shattered his career highs in hits allowed as well as home runs allowed. So, the bats need to be alive against Keuchel and the Cardinals should be good offensively.

Advantage: Dallas Keuchel