Mikolas ends '25 campaign as Cards turn focus towards future of rotation

CHICAGO -- Much of Friday morning for the Cardinals at Wrigley Field was spent with a focus on the pitching staff of the future, leaving room for a storybook afternoon under a cloudless fall sky for Miles Mikolas to spin one last start as a Redbird before entering free agency.

The story of the season continued apace. Mikolas surrendered three homers in five innings as the Cubs slugged their way to a 12-1 victory, securing a losing season for St. Louis (78-82) for the second time in the last three years -- but the second time in the last 18.

Manager Oliver Marmol confirmed on Friday morning what the schedule had already laid bare, announcing that lefty starter Matthew Liberatore would be shut down for the season’s final weekend. Liberatore, who entered Spring Training as a contender for the rotation but did not secure a spot there until the eve of the season, made 29 starts for St. Louis in 2025, posting a 4.21 ERA and finishing with a strong total of 151 2/3 innings.

“He showed exactly what he needed to show,” Marmol said. “Throwing an extra game on him at this point based on being eliminated does not make sense.”

Liberatore and Andre Pallante are set to be the only two returning Cardinals who made at least 25 starts and pitched at least 100 innings in the big leagues this season.

Michael McGreevy -- another young, returning starter -- will have the assignment for Saturday’s game. Kyle Leahy, with 85 strong innings in relief this season, will start a bullpen game Sunday, ahead of a winter that the Cardinals plan to use as an opportunity to build him into a candidate to start in 2026.

Mikolas turned in a requisite five innings on Friday, but he continued to be bitten by the home run ball at this ballpark to an almost astonishing degree. The three homers he allowed follow the six he gave up on July 4, a Cardinals franchise record for a single game by a starting pitcher.

“They took some good swings, had a good approach against him,” Marmol said. “Still competed to give us five innings, give us a look at it.”

Mikolas’ nine homers allowed at Wrigley this season are the most by any pitcher in the Major Leagues at a single visiting ballpark, and they are more than the total surrendered here this season by all but three Cubs pitchers -- Shota Imanaga (17 in 12 starts), Colin Rea (14 in 17 starts) and Matthew Boyd (11 in 15 starts).

The total breaks the record for homers allowed by a Cardinal at Wrigley in a single season, with Friday’s start breaking Mikolas’ tie with Chris Carpenter in 2004 with six. The only other visiting pitcher to allow nine homers in a single season at Wrigley was Hall of Famer Warren Spahn, who surrendered the total over three starts in 1958 as a member of the Milwaukee Braves.

“Not my best,” Mikolas acknowledged. “Thought my fastball came along the last couple innings. Felt really good physically. Just went in there, you know, trying to challenge some guys. Got beat here and there, but not my best. Not as good as you want it to be.”

He allowed only one hit other than the three homers, a fourth-inning single to Kyle Tucker. He walked one and struck out three.

Gordon Graceffo and Chris Roycroft were roughed up in a difficult seventh inning that saw the Cubs send 11 men to the plate and score seven runs. Graceffo was tagged for five runs on four hits and one walk while recording only one out; Roycroft allowed three runs on three hits and one walk in 1 2/3 innings.

“You dissect it enough to understand what to gather from it, what not to, and some of the things you're gathering from it are a continuation of the things that we've already had conversations about,” Marmol said of the pair of righty relievers. “So you just continue to drive those things home, because we need them to be good.”

If indeed Mikolas’ free-agent journey takes him away from St. Louis, he departs the Cardinals with an overall record of 68-69. He made two All-Star teams (2018, 2022) after signing in St. Louis following a successful three-year stint with the Yomiuri Giants of NPB, which revitalized his career and brought him to prominence in this era of Cardinals baseball.

“I’m too optimistic to fully commit to the idea that I’m not coming back,” he grinned. “There’s 29 other teams, but I think it’s pretty well known what my favorite colors are -- [I’m a] Cardinal red kind of guy. If this is my last one, then I really did cherish my time here and couldn’t have been happier to be a part of this organization for the last eight years.”