St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Miles Mikolas hopes that the team has finally reached rock bottom. Mikolas took the loss for the Cardinals in their 6-1 defeat against the New York Mets Friday night. It extended St. Louis' losing streak to six games, giving it an abysmal 27-43 record in the 2023 season.

Miles Mikolas surrendered six runs in six innings. The Cardinals' pitcher only struck out one batter. After his brutal outing against the Mets, Mikolas shouldered all of the blame.

“It starts with me. It starts with the starting pitcher,” Mikolas said. “You give up three runs in the first. You can rah-rah the boys on the bench all day, but you just put them in a hole. I’ve got to be better. I feel like I let us down there. You let three runs in the first, it’s hard for your team to get fired up and kind of get going. That’s on me. I’ll go back to the hotel and that’s on me.

“It can’t go this bad forever.”

One year after being an All-Star, Mikolas' ERA for the season is up to 4.36. Prior to Friday's outing, he had been the Cardinals' most consistent starter. Mikolas leads St. Louis' starters with a 1.4 WAR. The rest of the rotation has been one of the league's worst, highlighted by poor seasons from Jack Flaherty and Steven Matz.

The Cardinals continue to find different ways to lose. St. Louis blew a two-run lead against the San Francisco Giants Thursday before losing in 10 innings.

St. Louis only has a minus-18 run differential. The Cardinals' inability to get big hits or big outs has resulted in the National League's worst record.