Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas came within one pitch of immortality against the Pirates on Tuesday night, taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning before surrendering his first hit with two outs and two strikes.
But some baseball fans and analysts on social media wondered whether the brush with history was worth it given the heavy toll on Mikolas' surgically repaired right arm on a hot, muggy night at Busch Stadium.
The 33-year-old veteran tossed a whopping 129 pitches in the Redbirds' 9-1 win, good for most in the Majors this season by a healthy margin of 10 pitches. The next closest was Cincinnati's Tyler Mahle, whose 119 pitches also came on Tuesday night.
While Mikolas' workhorse performance heralded a much-needed respite for the Cardinals' bullpen on a day where the team played a doubleheader, some users were holding their breath with a lot of baseball left on the calendar.
Mikolas, for his part, downplayed concerns about the high-usage outing after the game.
"I'm in great shape," he joked.
There was no discussion with the coaching staff about exiting the game after the eighth inning, he added.
Others insisted it was worth it. And there's no denying that manager Oliver Marmol would have had a lot of questions to answer if he had lifted Mikolas with his no-no intact. Just ask Dodgers manager Dave Roberts.
Here's what some were saying on Twitter:
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