CINCINNATI — All of this week, one run per game was hardly enough for the St. Louis Cardinals, and for eight innings Wednesday afternoon it only seemed to be because of Miles Mikolas and Pals.

Staked to a one-run lead in top of the first inning, what Mikolas started with 5 1/3 scoreless innings the bullpen finished — and then the offense flourished. The Cardinals crushed three home runs in the ninth inning to turn a tense afternoon into a romp and a 6-0 victory against the Cincinnati Reds in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader.

The lack of runs in two losses already this week prompted some subtle shifting within the lineup, and the focal point of that change, Masyn Winn, was an immediate jolt.

Batting second for the first time in his career, Winn drilled a solo homer in the first inning for the lead Mikolas protected. Winn then added on in the ninth with his second homer. The Cardinals’ hit back-to-back-to-back homers to inflate their lead and avoid using closer Ryan Helsley in the first half of the day-night twin bill.

From the No. 9 spot in the lineup, Victor Scott II hit a three-run homer in the ninth to start the scoring. Twelve pitches from Alexis Diaz later, Lars Nootbaar and Winn also had homers.

The Cardinals’ win ends the Reds’ five-game winning streak.

The Cardinals had been 0-5 in Mikolas’ starts this season.

Miles Mikolas: hanging donuts

What began several games before the zeroes did continued for Mikolas as he pulled off a feat he’s not done in more than three years.

Having found a feel a few weeks ago for challenging hitters in the zone and straying outside of it just enough to avoid damage late in counts, Mikolas (1-2) continued his shutout run through recent starts. Thanks in part to Leahy’s cleanup in the sixth inning, Mikolas pitched back-to-back scoreless outings for the first time since July 2023. That tandem included a suspended game, this past two starts are Mikolas’ first of at least five scoreless in back-to-back games since April 2022.

The zeroes Wednesday came in a ballpark where zeroes, or what former pitching coach Mike Maddux called donuts, are rare for the right-hander.

Yet to allow a home run this season, the 10 homers Mikolas has allowed at Great American Ball Park are the most by any pitcher who never called Cincinnati home. In 19 career starts against the Reds, Mikolas had a 5.74 ERA, and the Cardinals would not add to the trend that he was 0-8 when pitching fewer than seven innings against Cincinnati. He had only one run to protect the entire time he was on the mound.

Mikolas did that by getting ahead — and often staying there.

Mikolas got strike one on 15 of the first 17 batters he faced and 17 of the 21 he faced total. Fresh off a nine-pitch strikeout in the first inning, Mikolas allowed a two-out single. He then went right back into the strike zone to retire eight consecutive Reds. Through five innings, he got 15 outs from 18 batters in large part because he did not walk any and only scattered two hits and a hit batter in that span. The Reds only got one runner into scoring position — and that runner had to steal second to do it — until the sixth inning.

That is when the game could have gone sideways.

Leahy holds after overturned call

The third time through the order for Mikolas was going swimmingly until the Reds challenged a call on the field and opened up the inning for real problems.

A leadoff single by TJ Friedl started Mikolas’ sixth inning, but after a flyout to center the Cardinals’ right-hander got a ground-ball up the middle from uber-talented switch-hitter Elly De La Cruz. Through Mikolas’ first five innings, De La Cruz reached base (twice) as often as his teammates did combined (twice). When he scorched a ground-ball back toward the mound, Mikolas got a bit of his glove on it — just enough to slow the play for Winn.

The Cardinals’ shortstop gloved the ball and tried to make a dash for second to get the lead runner — at the least — but it became clear he wasn’t going to beat Friedl.

Near second, Winn unleashed a throw toward first to try and get the speedy De La Cruz.

The throw skipped ahead of landing in Alec Burleson’s glove. The first-base umpire David Arieta called De La Cruz out — giving Mikolas the avenue to leave the inning and complete his quality start. Reds manager Terry Francona challenged the call, and replays showed clearly that De La Cruz reached first as the ball skipped in front of Burleson’s glove. Instead of two outs and the potential tying run at second base, the Cardinals had two on, one out, and a pitching change to make.

Enter Leahy.

The Cardinals’ rising high-leverage right-hander retired both of the Reds he faced to keep the inning and Mikolas’ outing scoreless. Like Mikolas getting by with a little help from his friend Leahy, so too did Leahy get through with a little help from a friend — Nolan Gorman. The Cardinals’ second base slid to his right to make a play on a ground-ball that got the Cardinals out of the inning with the tying run streaking for home.

Going solo in No. 2 debut

Want to give the lineup a different look after several days of searching for offense, Oliver Marmol moved shortstop Winn up to the No. 2 in the order. The idea, Marmol explained, was to give the top of the lineup a little more speed and shift Willson Contreras toward the middle of the order.

Marmol said he just wanted to see what it looked like.

Winn took advantage in a blink.

In his first ever plate appearance at No. 2 in the majors, Winn pounced on the first pitch he saw from Brady Singer and hit his second homer of the season. Winn drilled the ball an estimated 400 feet into the upper deck that overlooks left field at GABP. The homer was the extent of the game’s scoring until the ninth inning.

Winn added two walks and a stolen base later in the game. He would have had a pair of steals if not for the Reds’ winning their second replay challenge of the game.

Replay robbed Winn of a steal and an out.

Ejected Marmol leaps into argument

With Winn at the plate in the eighth inning and about to take a walk, frustrations that had been percolating from both dugouts through the game got Marmol ejected. Marmol took issue with some of the calls in Winn’s plate appearance and earlier, and the called strike on a 3-0 pitch was the one that brought another warning from home-plate umpire Bruce Dreckman and then the ejection.

Like a pommel horse champ, Marmol leapt over the dugout fence to argue.

It was his second ejection of the season.

At one point during their discussion, Dreckman counted to four, emphatically raising a finger with each numeral. That happened to be how many balls Winn eventually saw for the walk.

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