CLEVELAND — When the Cardinals fell into a 6-1 deficit after four innings against the Guardians on Saturday at Progressive Field, the momentum sparked by a two-run fifth inning helped them to complete their largest comeback of the season.

Following a two-run double by Alec Burleson in the fifth inning, the Cardinals strung together five consecutive hits to open the sixth inning that plated five runs and put them into a 6-6 tie. A sacrifice fly by Brendan Donovan regained the 1-0 lead he gave the Cardinals in the first inning with a homer that marked his first leadoff homer of the season. An RBI on a groundout by Masyn Winn gave the Cardinals an additional insurance run as they completed a 9-6 comeback win over Cleveland.

Before Saturday’s comeback, the largest comeback the Cardinals made this season was overcoming a 5-1 deficit for a 14-7 win in Philadelphia on May 14.

The five-run inning by the Cardinals (46-38) kicked off with a single from Lars Nootbaar, it included a game-tying, two-RBI double from Victor Scott II and an RBI single from Nolan Gorman that preceded the RBIs from Donovan and Winn.

The offense’s big inning got Miles Mikolas off the hook from a losing decision after he allowed six runs, all of which came in his fourth and final inning of work.

The veteran righty gave up a solo homer run to Kyle Manzardo that snapped a 21-inning scoreless streak for Cleveland. Manzardo’s homer was one of five extra-base hits collected by the Guardians against Mikolas. Their success versus Mikolas also included doubles from Lane Thomas and Nolan Jones, a triple by Steven Kwan, and a two-run homer from Gabriel Arias. Eight of the nine balls put in play during Mikolas’ fourth inning were considered hard hit by Statcast.

The Cardinals bullpen combined to cover five scoreless innings that included a scoreless inning that earned rookie Matt Svanson his first win, an escape job from Phil Maton, and closer Ryan Helsley’s 16th save of the season.

It all started with a walk

Down 6-1 at the start of the fifth inning, the Cardinal efforts to chip away at their deficit began with a patient approach by Donovan as drew a two-out walk after the two batters before him were retired on five total pitches.

With Donovan on first base, Winn pounced on a first-pitch slider for a double that put runners on first and second base. Behind him, Burleson laid off a 2-2 fastball to put him in full count and drove the next pitch, a 97.1-mph fastball at the knees, to left field for a two-run single that drew the Cardinals within three runs.

After Svanson pitched a scoreless bottom of the fifth inning, the Cardinals’ momentum on offense flowed with four consecutive singles from Nootbaar, Nolan Arenado, Gorman and Yohel Pozo pushed across one run.

When Cleveland pulled starter Slade Cecconi in favor of a left-hander with Scott stepping up to the plate, Scott won the left-on-left matchup by lining a double to right field that scored two runs, allowed Pozo to advance to third base, and put the Cardinals in a 6-6 tie. Scott came into Saturday with a .179 batting average against left-handed pitchers this year.

The sacrifice fly by Donovan gave the Cardinals a lead and a groundout by Winn provided an additional run.

The bullpen holds on

Following Mikolas’ exit, Svanson pitched a shutdown fifth inning and Steven Matz provided 1 2/3 scoreless inning. Brought in with two outs in the seventh inning to flip switch-hitting star third baseman Jose Ramirez around, Maton completed 1 1/3 scoreless innings and left the bases loaded to end the eighth.

Working with two outs and runners on each bases against pinch hitter Angel Martinez, Maton spun two curveballs for strike, missed with the strike zone with a cutter, and got Martinez to whiff on a curveball for an inning-ending strikeout.

After Willson Contreras provided an insurance run with a 430-foot solo homer, Helsley completed his 16th save of the season.

Curving results

To get through his first three innings of work before allowing the Guardians to erupt for six runs in the fourth, Mikolas faced one batter over the minimum and totaled five strikeouts on 36 pitches.

The lone batter Mikolas allowed to reach base in that stretch was Manzardo, who singled with one out in the first inning. Manzardo was left stranded at first base when Mikolas struck out Ramirez, swinging, on a 1-2 curveball that bounced in the dirt, and by striking out Carlos Santana, looking, on a 74.8-mph curveball that clipped the top of the strike zone.

Mikolas collected two more strikeouts in the second inning and one in the third, which came against Arias as he whiffed on an 0-2 curveball.

Across his first three innings, Mikolas landed his curveball for five called strikes and got two whiffs on it.

But in the fourth inning, Mikolas’ curveball was hit for a double by Lane Thomas that put runners on second and third base with one out. A 3-2 curveball was fouled off by Jones and followed by a double that scored a run. In the at-bat that followed, Arias lifted a 2-1 curveball from Mikolas over the center-field wall for a two-run homer that put the final touches on Cleveland’s five-run inning.

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