“I asked him politely to use the grass,” said Mikolas, tongue firmly in cheek. “We do a tremendous job of taking care of that mound — your landing spot, the rubber, kind of keep it nice for the guys coming out of the bullpen. No one wants to come out of the bullpen with the mound all chewed.
Another interesting call-up was righthanded reliever Mike Mayers from Memphis. Mayers, who started the season with the Cardinals, was out more than two months with a right shoulder strain suffered in mid-April.