Miles Mikolas knows a strong finish will shape where he starts next year: Cardinals Extra

MILWAUKEE — Before he could throw the first pitch of the game, Miles Mikolas had to first figure out how to let catcher Pedro Pages know what was coming.

Every time he mashed the button on the PitchCom device it would squawk a pitch he did intend to call. At some point between changing his jersey or sitting on the bench, he had reset the device to another pitcher’s setting, and as he tried to signal for the first pitch of the game, it kept announcing something different.

“It’s like sinker, sinker, sinker, sinker,” Mikolas said. “And I’m like what the (heck)? And the clock is counting down. And I’ve got to throw it.”

Mikolas wanted to throw a four-seam fastball.

He ended up yielding to the ornery PitchCom and throwing a sinker.

A leadoff single followed, and for the rest of the first i