After the Los Angeles Dodgers begin the 2024 regular season by facing the San Diego Padres in the Seoul Series for MLB’s first games in South Korea, they will return stateside and start the domestic portion of their schedule the following week.
That begins with hosting the St. Louis Cardinals for the Dodger Stadium opener on Wednesday, March 28. It’s part of a four-game series to close out the month and now has some added intrigue.
According to John Denton of MLB.com, Miles Mikolas was critical of the Dodgers’ spending spree in free agency and suggested succeeding against them would come with added satisfaction:
#STLCards RHP Miles Mikolas on opening vs. the #Dodgers : “We’re not exactly a low payroll team, but you got the Dodgers playing checkbook baseball. We’re going to be the hardest working group of Midwestern farmers we can be. … It would be great to stick it to the Dodgers.”
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) March 16, 2024
In March 2023, the Cardinals signed Mikolas to a three-year, $55.75 million contract that runs through the 2025 season. That makes him part of a Cardinals payroll that is projected to rank in the top 10 for 2024.
That does pale in comparison to the Dodgers, who have been touted as baseball’s newest villain due to signing Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, while also trading for Tyler Glasnow and agreeing to a contract extension with the right-hander.
Miles Mikolas’ stats against Dodgers
Mikolas is certainly going to have an opportunity to personally back up his comments as he was named the Cardinals’ Opening Day starter. That originally was presumed to be Sonny Gray, who signed a three-year, $75 million contract with the team last November.
However, Gray suffered a right hamstring strain earlier this month and the Cardinals are taking a cautious approach with his recovery.
The Opening Day start is going to be the third of Mikolas’ career, and he’s 0-2 thus far.
Overall against the Dodgers, Mikolas is 1-2 with a 4.23 ERA in seven career games (four starts).
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