ST. LOUIS -- Miles Mikolas' outing against the San Francisco Giants was typical, and typical for him is pretty good.
Mikolas won his fourth consecutive start, Matt Carpenter hit his NL-leading 36th home run and the Cardinals beat the Giants 9-2 to complete a three-game sweep and remain on track for the NL's second wild card.
St. Louis (87-69) has won 3 consecutive games and 6 of 7. The Cardinals remained 1½ games ahead of Colorado (85-70) and two games behind Milwaukee, the wild card leader. St. Louis hosts the Brewers (89-67) in a three-game series starting to night.
"We feel pretty good," Mikolas said. "We feel strong. We feel like we're a team that's real dangerous and a team that's going to come out and give a lot of people trouble."
Mikolas (17-4) allowed 2 runs -- 1 earned -- and 2 hits in 7 innings with 8 strikeouts and no walks. John Brebbia and Giovanny Gallegos, who made his Cardinals debut, finished a five-hitter.
"I had some good sink of my fastball so I tried to use that a lot," said Mikolas, tied with Washington's Max Scherzer and Chicago's Jon Lester for the NL lead in wins.
"Just pound the zone. They took some swings early so I was able to get some quick outs."
Mikolas has made 11 starts of at least 7 innings and the 2 hits he gave up were a season low.
Andrew Suarez (7-12) gave up 2 runs and 6 hits in 5 innings as San Francisco gave him 3 runs or less of run support during his time in the game for the 21st time this season. The Giants finished 31-50 on the road for a two-year record of 57-105 away from home.
MARLINS 6, REDS 0 Rookie catcher Chad Wallach hit his first big league home run as host Miami beat Cincinnati.
BREWERS 13, PIRATES 6 Christian Yelich hit his 32nd home run, Travis Shaw added his 31st and visiting Milwaukee blew past mistake-prone Pittsburgh.
METS 8, NATIONALS 6 Michael Conforto hit a go-ahead, bases-loaded triple, rookie Jeff McNeil matched a career high with four hits and New York beat host Washington.
BRAVES 2, PHILLIES 1 Lane Adams homered and drove in two runs, Anibal Sanchez won for the first time in nine starts and Atlanta prevailed over visiting Philadelphia, which dropped from postseason contention.
ROCKIES 2, DIAMONDBACKS 0 Kyle Freeland extended his unbeaten streak to 10 starts, and Colorado beat host Arizona for a three-game sweep than kept the Rockies 1½ games behind St. Louis for the NL's second wild card with one week remaining in the regular season.
DODGERS 14, PADRES 0 Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched six scoreless innings and tied a career high with three of the Dodgers' 16 hits, and NL West-leading Los Angeles routed San Diego.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
ORIOLES 6, YANKEES 3 The playoff-bound Yankees blew a three-run lead against the worst team in the majors as Baltimore topped host New York.
RAYS 5, BLUE JAYS 2 Blake Snell won his ninth consecutive start to increase his major league-leading victories total to 21, and visiting Tampa Bay beat Toronto to stave off wild-card elimination.
ROYALS 3, TIGERS 2 Rookie Brad Keller pitched seven strong innings, Cam Gallagher broke a sixth-inning tie with a two-run single and Kansas City held on to beat host Detroit.
ASTROS 6, ANGELS 2 Charlie Morton left Houston's victory over visiting Los Angeles after one inning because of discomfort in his pitching shoulder.
RANGERS 6, MARINERS 1 Adrian Beltre was given a standing ovation when he was removed just before host Texas rallied for four runs in the sixth to beat Seattle.
TWINS 5, ATHLETICS 1 Kyle Gibson allowed one run over 71/3 innings, Jake Cave hit a two-run home run and Minnesota beat Oakland.
INTERLEAGUE
CUBS 6, WHITE SOX 1 Kyle Schwarber homered and drove in two runs, and the Chicago Cubs beat the crosstown White Sox to lower their magic number for clinching the NL Central title to five.
Sports on 09/24/2018