After making his regular season debut with the Washington Nationals, we take a look at how veteran Miles Mikolas fared against the Chicago Cubs
Despite a strong opening day for the Washington Nationals in the Windy City, Washington was unable to secure a win in Saturday's game against the Chicago Cubs, falling 10-2.
In the second game of the season, the Washington Nationals named Miles Mikolas, who signed back in February, the starting pitcher for Saturday's game against the Cubs.
Mikolas threw for five innings and 97 pitches before being relieved by 28-year old left handed pitcher Ken Waldichuk.
The second inning became a costly one for the Nationals. Chicago's second baseman Nico Hoerner walked to first before stealing and securing second base making room for shortstop Dansby Swanson to also earn himself a walk.
Cubs designated hitter Moises Ballesteros also found himself making his way to first to load up the bases for Chicago. Now up against right fielder Matt Shaw, Mikolas only got two pitches in before Shaw made contact with the 73 miles per hour curve ball hitting a sacrifice fly allowing Hoerner to make the first score of the game followed by a Swanson score.
The Cubs finished out the second inning over the Nationals, 4-0, after a defensive error allowed for two more runs.
With an early deficit, the Nationals would be forced to play catch up to try and set themselves up in a winning position. Unfortunately several efforts weren’t enough for the young Nationals team to make a comeback.
Mikolas rounded out his Nationals debut in the 5th inning by striking out Ballesteros. Mikolas allowed six hits, four earned runs, and had four strikeouts. With a pitch count of 97, 57 of those pitches were strikes. Mikolas struggled with efficiency on the mound where he averaged almost 20 pitches per inning. He closed out his debut with an ERA of 7.20.
The 37-year-old is one of the newest additions to a very young Nationals team. The seasoned veteran signed with the Nationals for a 1-year, $2.25 million deal where he has the potential to earn $750,000 in performance bonuses. The right-handed pitcher spent the past seven seasons with the St. Louis Cardinals before making the move to the nation's capital this offseason.
During the 2025 season with the Cardinals, Mikolas went 8-11 and had an ERA of 4.84.
With Mikolas having one of the more experienced arms on the Nationals, expectations are set high for the right handed pitcher. However, with this being his debut, the team will look to move forward and work on how to limit strong offensive runs which was demonstrated by the Cubs impressive second inning.
Washington will face the Cubs Sunday at 2:20 p.m. with a goal of winning the series.