Cubs end Miles Mikolas's career with Cardinals in poetic fashion

The Miles Mikolas era in St. Louis is officially over.

The 37-year-old starting pitcher will be a free agent at the end of the 2025 season, and fans couldn't be more ready for Mikolas to sail off into the sunset and no longer pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals.

Mikolas has spent the last seven years with the Cardinals, and his career is a story of solid peaks and tremendous valleys. He went to two All-Star Games since joining the Cardinals in 2018, but he's also posted a winning record only once during that time. His ERA was once as low as 2.83, but it's been above 4.75 for the last three years. He's thrown the fifth-most innings since 2022, but he also has the 29th-worst ERA among qualified starting pitchers in that span.

Fans of the Cardinals are happy to see Mikolas leave the team after several years of subpar performances and not giving his team a chance to win.

In his final start wearing the Birds on the Bat, Miles Mikolas went out in the most fitting way possible to a long-time rival.

The Chicago Cubs send Miles Mikolas packing with an emphatic barrage of home runs.

Miles Mikolas made his (probable) final start of his Cardinals' career on Friday afternoon against the Chicago Cubs. This was his second start this year against the Cubs, and both have come at Wrigley Field.

In his first outing against the Cubs on the Fourth of July, Mikolas was absolutely shelled. He allowed eight runs on 10 hits including a whopping six home runs, a figure that places him in a tie for the most home runs given up by a Cardinals' pitcher in franchise history. He gave up 2,441 feet of home runs, nearly half a mile of long balls in one outing.

With the Cardinals officially being eliminated from the postseason earlier in the week, hopes were low for the final Mikolas outing of his Cardinals tenure. Fans were right to have low expectations.

Mikolas threw five innings, but he gave up four runs on four hits, three of which were home runs. He struck out four batters and walked one.

Nico Hoerner started the game off with a home run to center field that traveled 412 feet. Mikolas tossed two clean innings in the second and third, but Pete Crow-Armstrong got ahold of a hanging curveball in the middle of the plate to send it 396 feet to right-center field. Michael Busch joined the party by hitting his 32nd home run of the year to center field a distance of 414 feet in the bottom of the fifth, and Mikolas's night ended after that frame.

It's only fitting that the Chicago Cubs sent Miles Mikolas packing with another barrage of long balls this year. The St. Louis Cardinals handed Miles Mikolas an unnecessary extension before the 2023 season, and it has gone poorly for the club. Mikolas leaving in free agency is a welcome sign for fans of the organization, and having to watch him give up 29 home runs this year has been painful.