Miles Mikolas's post-game comments miss the boat with Cardinal fans

Miles Mikolas has given up nine or more runs only six times in his career. On Sunday night against the Boston Red Sox, Mikolas's nine runs allowed ranks among one of his worst career outings.

In just 2.2 innings, Mikolas managed to give up nine runs on 11 hits. He walked one batter and struck out only one as well. Boston had Mikolas's number from the start, and what started out as a chaotic performance ended as one of the worst of his career.

It took Mikolas 81 pitches to get only eight outs. 45 of his pitches were thrown in the zone while 36 were out of the zone. Batters swung at 41 of his pitches, and they made contact on 39 of those swings. You read that right. Mikolas generated only two swings and misses on 81 pitches. Eight of Mikolas's pitches registered as hard hits, meaning they were hit more than 100 MPH. The remaining 10 balls hit into fair territory were not hard-hit balls.

Regardless of the metric you use, Miles Mikolas had a terrible outing. However, looking at his quotes post-game wouldn't lead you to believe that entirely.

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas failed to take full responsibility for his blow-up start against the Boston Red Sox.

Before we get into his quote, it's important to add some context to it. Boston's offense is one of the best in the league. Even before Mikolas's start against them, the Red Sox had the fifth-best wRC+ in baseball, the fourth-best batting average, and the fifth-best slugging percentage in baseball. They are, for all intents and purposes, a top-five team in Major League Baseball offensively.

Fenway Park is also an incredibly hitter-friendly park. Over the last three years, only Coors Field in Colorado benefits hitters more according to Baseball Savant's Park Factor. An electric offense combined with a stadium that favors hitters doesn't bode well for pitchers in general.

"I made some good pitches. I made some bad pitches. It didn't seem to matter. They've got some hot bats over there," said Mikolas after the game. "Sometimes there's not much you can do."

When looking at swing-and-miss pitches, one would assume that Mikolas threw only two "good pitches." He threw a total of 13 strikes that were either called strikes or swinging strikes. An additional 21 balls were hit foul. Meanwhile, the eight hard-hit balls and the 29 balls would absolutely be deemed "bad pitches" by most people.

For Mikolas to say "There's not much you can do" shows how detached he was from the game. The Cardinals are stuck between competing and rebuilding, leaning into the youth and trusting veterans this year. Mikolas, a veteran on the team, performing in this manner does nothing to help in any direction.

This is the third straight year for Miles Mikolas to have underperformed. His three-year, $55 million deal that he signed prior to the 2023 season has soured dramatically on the organization. In that time span, only one pitcher, Patrick Corbin, has had a worse ERA than Mikolas among qualified pitchers.

Miles Mikolas had one of the worst outings of his career on Sunday against the Boston Red Sox. It's about high time he is cut from the roster in one way or another. Michael McGreevy, Gordon Graceffo (who also didn't fare well on Sunday night), or Quinn Mathews could pitch at least as well or better than Mikolas has for a fraction of his price tag. Using one of these three rookies would also help jumpstart the club's youth movement dramatically.