Trevor Cahill Hurls A's Into 1st Place Tie With Houston; Miles Mikolas Is 13-3 As Cardinals Overtake Brewers

Players of the Day for Saturday, August 18, 2017

Trevor Cahill

American League

The Oakland A's tied the Astros for first place in the AL West with a 7-1 win over Houston Saturday as starter Trevor Cahill tossed seven innings of one-hit ball.

Cahill gave up a second inning single to Yuli Gurriel, but didn't allow another hit, putting down 14 straight until walking Alex Bregman to lead off the seventh. Bregman was erased on a double play and Cahill ended the inning by striking out Marwin Gonzalez. Cahill threw 100 pitches and struck out seven, improving to 5-2. His walk to Bregman was the only one he allowed.

Cahill has a 3.12 ERA in 15 starts this season.

Oakland has been tearing it up since the all star break, going 19-7 and are 11-3 in August.

With game three on tap for a 4:05 pm EDT start on Sunday, the A's have the opportunity to take over sole possession of first place in the division.

Miles Mikolas

National League

Surging St. Louis took over second place in the NL Central and are 1/2-game behind Philadelphia in the wild card race after defeating the visiting Milwaukee Brewers on Saturday, 7-2.

Winners of 10 of their last 11, St Louis got another prime pitching performance from Miles Mikolas, who gave up five hits over six strong innings for his 13th win against three losses. A second inning solo shot by Milwaukee's Travis Shaw was the only earned run Mikolas surrendered, as he struck out seven and did not issue any walks.

After spending parts of three seasons with San Diego and Texas and various stints in the minors from 2012 through 2014, Mikolas played three seasons in Japan with the Nomuri Giants compiling a 31–13 record with a 2.18 ERA in 62 starts. He joined St. Louis in 2018 and has won five straight decisions.

The Cardinals, now 14-3 in August, has whittled the Cubs' lead is down to four games. Milwaukee, thanks to losing the first two games of the three-game series at St. Louis, is 4 1/2 out.

In 30 games since Mike Shildt took over as interim manager after the firing of Mike Matheny at the all star break, St. Louis is 20-10.

Game three is Sunday, 2:15 pm EDT.