Mikolas tossed four scoreless innings in Friday's 4-2 Grapefruit League loss to the Astros, allowing four hits and two walks while recording three strikeouts.

EDGE Analysis

The right-hander put together what was easily his best appearance of spring thus far, looking much more like the pitcher that turned in a 31-13 record in the Japanese Central League while toiling for the Yomiuri Giants the last three seasons. Mikolas scattered four harmless singles across his quartet of frames and escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth by retiring Brian McCann and J.D. Davis on a pop out and groundout, respectively. The veteran stretched out to 68 pitches (45 strikes) overall, Glenn Sattell of MLB.com reports, and got up as high as 98 mph with his fastball. He's looking to refine his slider change ahead of his next outing, in an effort to continue keeping quality bats as off-balance as he did Friday against the defending World Series champions. "That should make it a little more effective, get some more drop out of it as well as more of a timing pitch to use it as a changeup so that I can vary my speeds from the fastball and the slider/cutter, curveball, changeup/split change," he said.