ST. LOUIS — With the Cardinals looking to make up ground in the NL wild-card standings as the calendar nears the end of the month and creeps closer to the July 31 trade deadline, a shutout effort started by Miles Mikolas and RBIs from Yohel Pozo and Masyn Winn helped them inch upward in the standings on Friday night.

Playing host to Padres, the Cardinals received five-plus scoreless innings from Mikolas, an RBI from Pozo in the third inning to provide a lead, and two RBIs on a fourth-inning double by Winn to pad it in their 3-0 win over San Diego at Busch Stadium.

The win moved the Cardinals (54-51) 1 1/2 games behind the Padres for the final wild-card spot in the National League.

Hit for two homers and four runs across his four inning against Arizona on Sunday, Mikolas’ outing marked his fifth scoreless outing of five more innings this season. Mikolas logged five-plus innings as he worked around seven hits and did not issue a walk to the 21 batters he faced before his exit.

Mikolas (6-7) recorded five outs on ground balls and five on flyouts. He worked around traffic in the third inning when hits by Elias Diaz and Fernando Tatis Jr. put runners on second and third base. He did so again in the fourth inning when a double play started by right fielder Jordan Walker helped the veteran starter escape an inning that began with back-to-back hits by Jackson Merrill and Xander Bogaerts.

Mikolas left his start with a runner on first base after a single from Manny Machado opened the sixth inning and after he threw 73 pitches — 52 of which were strikes.

The five-plus innings set the Cardinals up to roll out their core of high-leverage arms to notch a second consecutive win.

Steven Matz, Phil Maton and JoJo Romero each notched holds with scoreless innings of relief apiece as they bridged to closer Ryan Helsley. Helsley, who along with Maton and Romero were pitching on back-to-back days, secured his 21st save of the season with outing.

Pozo produced the first of the Cardinals’ three runs on a groundout in the third inning that allowed Willson Contreras to score from third base. Winn’s double came with no outs in the fourth inning and plated Contreras and Nolan Arenado after they drew back-to-back one out walks.

Turning two on the Friars

When the Padres threatened to score against Mikolas and Matz, double plays helped the two Cardinals keep San Diego out of the runs column.

For Mikolas, the timely double play he received came in the fourth inning and included an outfield assist from Walker.

Facing Gavin Sheets with Merrill and Bogaerts on first and second base, respectively, after the two collected back-to-back singles, Mikolas got Sheets to hit a fly ball to right field. The fly ball to Walker was deep enough or Merrill to successfully tag up to third base, but not deep enough for Bogaerts to move up an extra bag as a bad read on Walker’s throw led Bogaerts to be tagged out with ease.

Working with a runner on third base and two outs, Mikolas got ahead of Jake Cronenworth 1-2 with a sinker for a called strike and with fastball placed away that Cronenworth fouled off. The at-bat was capped with a slider that broke in on Cronenworth and got him to whiff for an inning-ending strikeout.

The first Cardinal out of the bullpen on Friday after Mikolas allowed a leadoff single to Machado to begin the sixth inning, Matz’s timely double play started with a snag he made on a comebacker from Sheets.

After he recorded a lineout of Merrill and allowed runners to reach first and second base when Bogaerts singled, Matz’s 0-2 curveball to Sheets was sharply hit to his arm side. The lefty reliever made a backhanded grab and made an accurate throw to shortstop Winn to begin an inning-ending double.

A bit of banter

An 0-1 fastball from starter Nick Pivetta that hit Contreras on the left elbow led the Cardinals’ and Padres’ benches and bullpens to empty after words were exchanged by Contreras and Pivetta.

Contreras, who entered Friday tied for first in the majors with 14 hit by pitches, tossed his bat and began taking off his elbow guard and began to walk down the first base line when Pivetta began walking towards Contreras. Contreras and Pivetta exchanged words as Contreras walked down the line, and Padres catcher Elias Diaz stepped in front of Contreras.

Contreras continued to walk and exchange words with Pivetta as he walked to first base, and the dugouts and bullpens emptied onto the field. Players and coaches returned to the dugout shortly after the infield was crowded with Padres and Cardinals.

The benches-clearing moment did not result in any ejections.

Mikolas shows added zip

Entering Friday with an ERA above 5.00 through 19 starts this year, Mikolas got just one whiff on the 73 pitches he threw but had some extra life on his repertoire.

The 36-year-old righty’s average fastball velocity on the night was 2.2 mph higher than its yearly average, per Statcast. The velocity of his slider averaged 90 mph, a 2.8 mph increased for its yearly average, and peaked at 92.4 mph.

Mikolas’ added velocity on his repertoire showed late into his outing as he used a 95.6 mph sinker and a 96.2-mph fastball to help him strikeout Cronenworth in the fourth inning and flashed a 91.5-mph slider in the fifth inning to help him retire Luis Arraez on a flyout to end the fifth inning with Tatis stranded at second base.

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