ST. LOUIS (AP) — Miles Mikolas pitched effectively into the eighth inning, Albert Pujols passed Stan Musial on the career extra-base hits list, and Corey Dickerson and Lars Nootbar homered as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-1 Monday night.
The teams split the four-game series and are tied for the final wild-card spot in the National League. The Cardinals have won two straight but are just 3-6 in their last nine games.
Philadelphia lost consecutive games for the third time since the start of June.
Mikolas (6-7) gave up six hits, including a first-inning home run to Rhys Hoskins, struck out five and walked none in 7 1/3 innings.
“I thought I had good command of the curveball and fastball early,” Mikolas said. “I kind of used those two pitches off of each other to keep them off balance.”
Mikolas has allowed two earned runs or fewer in six of his past seven starts.
Aaron Nola (6-6) cruised until the bottom of the Cardinals order touched him for three runs in the fifth. Nola went seven innings, allowing five runs on seven hits. He struck out seven and walked none.
“That’s a good team over there,” Nola said. “We played them good the first two days, we came out with two wins which is good. But we’ve got a lot of baseball left.”
Pujols doubled off the right field wall to lead off the seventh, just missing a home run, to take sole possession of third place with 1,378 extra base hits. He snapped a tie with Musial, passing the Cardinals great to join a top three including Hank Aaron and Barry Bonds.
“It’s really special,” Pujols said. “Doing it here in front of our fans is even better. I don’t have any words to describe my feelings, especially the respect I have for Stan and his whole family and his…
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