Mikolas (1-2) allowed two earned runs on four hits and a walk over six innings in Thursday's 8-2 Grapefruit League win over the Braves.

EDGE Analysis

He heads into the regular season on a roll, as Thursday's quality start was a strong follow-up to a five-inning blanking of the Nationals last Friday. A key to his improvement over a first pair of rough spring starts has been his curveball, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, with pitching coach Mike Maddux noting how consistently Mikolas has been able to throw it for strikes. If he's able to maintain the same caliber of performance once the games begin counting next week, Mikolas will prove to be one of the more prudent offseason acquisitions across the majors.