Here is the latest Mid-America sports news from The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Kolten Wong hit the first of four St. Louis homers, Miles Mikolas won his third straight start and the Cardinals boosted their playoff push with an 11-6 victory over the Atlanta Braves. The NL East leaders took a third consecutive loss after winning a season-best six straight. They stayed 6½ games ahead in the division following Philadelphia’s loss, which reduced Atlanta’s magic number to seven.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes has every reason to celebrate his 23rd birthday. He threw six TD passes without an interception in a win over the Steelers on Sunday, setting a slew of records in the process, and has the Kansas City Chiefs off to a 2-0 start.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Rookie Jacob Stallings hit a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally the Pittsburgh Pirates to a 7-6 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Monday night. After Jordan Luplow grounded into a double play, Kevin Kramer walked and moved to second on Kevin Newman’s single. Stallings then singled into left field off Ben Lively, scoring Kramer. It was Stallings’ second career game-ending hit. The catcher also had one in 2016.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska football coach Scott Frost is keeping an eye on how his players are responding to the tough start to the season. He says he hasn’t seen signs of players giving up or having their own agendas. But he knows the 2017 team that collapsed at the end of the season had players going off in their own directions and the Huskers never recovered. The Huskers open Big Ten play this week at Michigan.