Cardinals' Miles Mikolas Falls One Pitch Short of No-Hitter vs. Pirates

St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas was one pitch away from throwing a no-hitter on Tuesday, but it wasn't meant to be.

Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Cal Mitchell spoiled the party with a two-out double in the ninth inning off a two-strike pitch from Mikolas. St. Louis then turned to reliever Packy Naughton to get the final out in the 9-1 victory.

Mikolas settled for a final line of 129 pitches in 8.2 innings, with one hit, one walk and six strikeouts. After the game, he was honest about how he felt after losing a no-hitter in such devastating fashion:

"I can't say enough about our defense tonight. We were everywhere we had to be and making fantastic plays all game," Mikolas continued. "I kind of feel like I let them down after all the great defense that I got today."

Mikolas also assessed the mistake he made on the pitch to Mitchell, but he handled it in stride.

"Curveball's been pretty good all day, and maybe tried to overthrow it just a little bit, left it a little bit up. ... They put some really good swings on some good pitches today. And like I said, a couple deep fly balls to the track, that one kind of just kept going," Mikolas said.

Despite not getting a hit in the first eight-and-two-third innings, the Pirates recorded a run in the fourth when Daniel Vogelbach brought Bryan Reynolds home with a ground out to third. Reynolds had reached on a fielding error by St. Louis left fielder Juan Yepez.

Had Mikolas completed the no-hitter, it would've been the first one in which the opposing team scored a run since Ervin Santana's no-hitter in 2011.