May 30—The Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers, the two favorites in the National League Central Division and playoff teams last season, have played two series of four games each this season. Little has been settled.

The Cardinals won two of four in Milwaukee in April and the Brewers, by virtue of their 8-0 win at Busch Stadium Sunday, captured two games in this fourgame set. Milwaukee came to town 3 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Cardinals, which is the same margin with which they left town.

But Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol wasn’t happy that his team had only held serve during the eight games in which the Cardinals have outscored Milwaukee 33-30. He is only too aware that the Cardinals led both series two games to one before losing the finale.

“Our goal is to go out there and beat them every time,” Marmol said.

With Monday’s game against San Diego basically a bullpen game, Marmol wanted to ride 2022 ace Miles Mikolas as long as he could Sunday.

“We needed to cover six (innings) today,” Marmol said.

In the process, that required a careerhigh 115 pitches for Mikolas, though he walked just one in 5 2/3 innings.

“(The Brewers) had a really good game plan against him,” Marmol said. “They had a clear game plan.”

Marmol said that both home runs off Mikolas — by Jace Peterson and Rowdy Tellez — were on “solid pitches. They still went a long ways.”

The Cardinals, however, might have played until Armistice Day and not scored on 2021 Cy Young winner Corbin Burnes, who has a 1.40 earned-run average for his career at Busch Stadium. He allowed just two hits and struck out 11 in seven innings.

The Cardinals haven’t scored in five of 10 games while Mikolas has been on the mound this year.

“But (Mikolas) has a great mentality,” Marmol said. “Obviously, it would nice to score for him but ... that’s part of the gig.”

Mikolas said, “The only thing I like about (Burnes) is we’ve got the (same) number, That’s about it. He’s a pretty good pitcher. But, you know, he’s not on my team. He’s got a good number (39).”

Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said, “Seven innings ... against the team that obviously we’re going to be in competition with all year long. ... It’s a great performance and well timed.”

While the Cardinals will have a doubleheader in Chicago against the Cubs on Saturday, the Brewers will have one on Monday.

Mikolas (3-3) gave up six runs overall, a statistic helped by some uneven defense as rookie Brendan Donovan had a tough day in right field.

“You can never question that kid’s effort,” Marmol said. “No, not a natural outfielder but he’s going to give you everything he has.”

Even though he threw the fourth-most pitches of the season in the majors—and most by a Cardinal since Adam Wainwright threw 122 in beating Cleveland two years ago — Mikolas said had even more in the tank.

“I felt great,” he said. “The velocity on my fastball was still there. I’m in great shape, the best shape of my life. Could have thrown 130 (pitches), I think. My high in Japan was 140. Threw like 150 in college. Everybody does that.

“My goal first and foremost is to go into the game as deep as possible, which usually comes with quick innings and limiting runs. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case today,” he said.

Like his manager, Mikolas was surprised by some of the pitches the Brewers handled.

“Got to go back and look at some video, but I think they hit some pretty good pitches,” Mikolas said. “Sometimes you’ve got to tip your hat. I think some of those pitches, you throw them and 10 out of 10 times it’s probably not a home run and every once in a while a guy puts a good swing on the ball that they don’t historically hit well. I think that’s kind of what happened today.”

The decisive blow was a three-run homer off the bat of Peterson in the fifth inning.

“Normally, he’s been really tough for us,” Peterson said of Mikolas. “We were just able to put some good swings on some pitches that he left over the middle.”

After Omar Navaez drew Mikolas’ only walk, a critical leadoff pass, and Lorenzo Cain singled, ninth-place hitter Peterson, nothing for nine in his career against Mikolas, came to the plate. There was a day when in a 1-0 game, the ninthplace hitter would have tried to sacrifice in such a situation.

Peterson is not a typical No. 9 hitter, though, and he showed clearly those days are gone. He ripped a 1-0 Mikolas slider for a three-run homer to right. Peterson’s fourth home run of the season put the Brewers ahead 4-0.

Tellez cracked his 10th homer of the season with one out in the sixth. Narvaez then got a triple as Donovan missed on a diving catch with two out in the inning. Mikolas’ career-high 115th pitch resulted in a grounder up the middle by Lorenzo Cain. Shortstop Tommy Edman got to the ball but threw wide of first baseman Paul Goldschmidt and Narvaez scored.

Mikolas left for left-hander T.J. McFarland. Cain finished the scoring with a two-run homer off Nick Wittgren in the eighth.

The teams next will play June 20-24 in Milwaukee and then three times in August and September, with two of those series here.

“That’s a good team with a good roster and they’re coached well,” Marmol said. “So we’ll go blow for blow. And I’ll bet on our guys.”