Miles Mikolas Now Better At Hitting Than Pitching

It’s been a bad season for the 37-year-old pitcher Miles Mikolas. He’s got an ERA of 5.67, and he’s made a habit of starts where a bunch of guys just wallop what he offers. Only two pitchers in MLB have allowed more dingers than he’s surrendered, and the signs point to Mikolas giving it another go in Japan once his one-year contract expires.

The silver lining, however, is that he plays for the Washington Nationals, and nothing that the Nationals do really matters anymore in the grand scheme of the league. All one can muster as a fan watching their games in this back stretch of the season is to root for something that’ll make you say “Oh! Huh.” Case in point: The team ran out of position players in extra innings of their contest against the Phillies on Wednesday. Manager Blake Butera used two pinch hitters and two pinch runners, the last of which was Triple-A outfielder Andrew Pinckney, making his MLB debut as a sub for first baseman Abimelec Ortiz. Butera opted not to keep him in the game for the defensive half of the 10th. Instead, he moved his DH to first, lost the DH, then watched new pitcher Clayton Beeter escape the inning with just one run scored, making the game 4-4 in the 11th.

Beeter was due up third in the top half, but after a walk and a triple by Jacob Young and C.J. Abrams, the next day’s scheduled starter pinch-hit for the previous inning’s pitcher. It was Mikolas, making his first plate appearance since 2021, who seemingly convinced his manager that he was the best man for the job.