Cardinals: Miles Mikolas makes wrong kind of history in disastrous start

The St. Louis Cardinals were hoping Miles Mikolas could curtail his Coors Field struggles. Instead, things got much, much worse. 

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas entered his Tuesday night start against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field with a 1.83 ERA in 12 night games this season. However, it didn’t take long for that impressive ERA to explode as Mikolas ended up on the wrong side of history in the Mile High City.

Mikolas entered into the MLB history books in a dubious way on Tuesday night, giving up 14 hits and 10 runs in 2.2 innings as the Rockies finished the third inning with a 12-0 lead over the National League Central-leading Cardinals. With that outing, Mikolas became just the second MLB pitcher to ever give up 14 or more hits and 10 or more runs while recording 10 or fewer outs.

Who was the last MLB pitcher to have such a horrendous outing? Ralph Comstock of the Detroit Tigers at the Boston Red Sox on Sept. 12, 1913 (h/t to @MikeGarrigan23 for the information).

Cardinals: Miles Mikolas’ disastrous start vs. Rockies makes dubious history

Overall, Mikolas entered Tuesday’s game with a 2.92 ERA, the ninth-lowest mark in MLB. However, when he walked off the mound in the middle of a nine-run Colorado third inning, that ERA had jumped to 3.50. Additionally, opponents were hitting just .222 against Mikolas this season before Tuesday night. Colorado went 14-for-22 against him (.637 batting average).

Colorado’s nine-run third inning which chased Mikolas marked the first time this season that a National League team had scored nine or more runs in a frame. Additionally, Colorado’s nine hits in the third inning were the most the Rockies had put together in one inning since June 28, 2019, when they recorded nine hits in the bottom of the fifth against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Mikolas flirted with history on June 14 when he came within one out of throwing a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates. On Tuesday night, he entered history on the complete opposite end of the pitching record books.