Mariners Win Cardinals Series, Back to .500
The Mariners took 2 of 3 games from the St. Louis Cardinals this weekend, winning their first series of the month against a perennial World Series contender.
The Mariners got back to .500 after winning two of three against the Cardinals who made their first visit to Safeco Field since 2002.
Newly acquired Mariner, Wade LeBlanc, made his first start for Seattle in game one of the series on Friday night after previously pitching for Toronto’s AAA affiliate and pitching in Japan last year. He pitched 6 shutout innings and struck out 3 while allowing only 3 hits to the Cardinals. The Mariners got an RBI from Dae-Ho Lee in the bottom of the 6th inning and got a scoreless inning of relief from Nick Vincent before Joaquin Benoit allowed 3 runs giving St. Louis a 3-1 lead.
In the 9th inning with the Mariners down 3-1, Kyle Seager led off with a double against Trevor Rosenthal, the Cardinals’ closer and Dae-Ho Lee followed that with a walk to put the tying run on base. Adam Lind then took a changeup deep into the right field seats giving the Mariners a 4-3 win on the walk off home run. Rosenthal and Lind spoiled a great start by Cardinals’ right hander Carlos Martinez who threw 7 innings of 4 hit, 1 run baseball. The win snapped a six-game losing streak by Seattle.
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The Mariners jumped out to an early 3 run lead in the second game of the series, getting 3 runs in the 1st thanks to a 2 run single by Lee, and an RBI single by Adam Lind. They added 2 runs in the 2nd after Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager got RBIs from an error and a fielder’s choice.
Nathan Karns looked really good in his first 3 innings, allowing just 1 run, before getting into trouble in the 5th and giving up a 3 run home run to Aledmys Diaz which cut the lead to 1 run. Karns lasted just 5 innings once again, and the bullpen was fantastic after he left the game. Mike Montgomery pitched 2 ⅓ scoreless innings striking out 4, Edwin Diaz got the last 2 outs of the 8th and struck out a batter, and despite the potential tying run being on 2nd base with 1 out in the 9th, Steve Cishek stranded him and got the save and the Mariners won the game 5-4 which gave them the series victory.
Despite Safeco Field being known as a “pitcher friendly ballpark” Sunday’s game had 8 home runs, 6 by St. Louis and 2 by Seattle and the Cardinals won 11-6. James Paxton pitched 5 innings gave up 5 runs on 8 hits. After a Matt Carpenter home run in the 6th inning gave St. Louis a 6-3 lead, Franklin Gutierrez hit a game-tying 3 run homer in the bottom of the 6th. Unfortunately, the Cardinals would hit 5 more solo home runs after that, including a second solo shot by Matt Carpenter, to give them a 11-6 win in the third and final game. Nelson Cruz also had a home run giving him 19 on the season.
Looking Forward:
The Mariners will have an off day on Monday before welcoming the Pittsburgh Pirates for 2 games. They then will have a tough task when Baltimore comes to town for the weekend.
Other News:
Scott Servais got ejected for the first time in his managerial career on Sunday.
Adrian Sampson is set to have season-ending surgery on his right elbow.
Next: Player Profile: Jimmy Graham
Norichika Aoki and Tom Wilhelmsen were optioned to AAA Tacoma and Donn Roach and David Rollins were brought up to the MLB roster.
Wade Miley is set to return from the 15-day Disabled List and start Tuesday’s game against the Pirates and Taijuan Walker should be rejoining the rotation sometime in the Baltimore series.