ST. LOUIS (AP) — Miles Mikolas was pitching in Japan a year ago. Now he’s one of the top pitchers in the majors.

Mikolas pitched a four-hitter for his first career shutout and Tyler O’Neill homered for the third straight game and drove in four runs, leading the St. Louis Cardinals to a 6-0 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night.

Mikolas needed just 109 pitches to remain unbeaten and struck out a career-high nine. The Cardinals won for the third time in four games and beat the Royals for the fifth straight time.

“Night like tonight, I was feeling good and on top of that we made some great plays on defense, tracking balls down in the outfield, getting dirty on the infield,” Mikolas said. “Everything just kind of came together for a great game.”

Mikolas (6-0) retired 13 of the final 14 batters he faced.