4/21/23

Mariners 5, Cardinals 2

(Seattle, WA) A much needed day off was just what the doctor ordered on Thursday for the Mariners and that day off seemed to do the team good in the opener of a three-game series with the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night. George Kirby was the typical guy we have become used to seeing and let his defense do the work. Some timely hitting mixed in for the M’s powered Seattle to a 5-2 win over the Red Birds.

Seattle continued to be hurt by timely two out hitting just like they were in the series against Milwaukee. A single by Nolan Arenado and a hit by pitch for Willson Contreras looked like they would come to pass after a fly out and a groundout that moved the runners up. With traffic on second and third, rookie sensation Jordan Walker drove a George Kirby slider off the wall in right field. Arenado and Contreras scored easily on the rookie’s third double of the season to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead.

Teoscar Hernandez started off his strong day at the plate in the bottom of the 2nd to help the M’s get one run back immediately. A leadoff double into the left field corner put the Mariner right fielder in scoring position to start the inning. After a strikeout of AJ Pollock, Cardinal starter Steven Matz got a first hand experience against the new and improved Jarred Kelenic. The young Mariner recorded the first hit by a lefty against Steven Matz in 2023 with a broken bat base hit to center field. Hernandez had plenty of speed to score from second to get Seattle on the board trailing 2-1.

It wouldn’t be much longer before the Mariners completely erased that deficit. Teoscar Hernandez decided he wanted his picture taken with the new home run trident and he earned himself that opportunity. Hernandez line a sinker through the cool night air into deep center field and out of the reach of a leaping Lars Nootbaar. The solo shot was the fourth of the season for Teoscar and tied the game back up at 2-2 headed into the 5th.

George Kirby only slipped up in that two-run second inning and outside of that he was absolutely dominant. Kirby retired 11 straight Cardinals after the two run double by Walker and even after that streak was snapped by Alec Burleson, Kirby sat down the next two batter he faced which would also be the final two batters he faced. Kirby finished his six-inning performance only allowing three hits and two runs with no walks (pretend to be surprised) and five strikeouts.

With everyone knowing Kirby’s day was done, the Mariners had one more chance to put him in line for the win in the bottom of the 6th. Julio Rodriguez led off with a walk and, after a Ty France pop out, stole his fifth base of the season. Eugenio Suarez joined him on the basepath with a walk to put runners on first and second with one out. St. Louis turned to their bullpen and reliever Drew VerHagen was up first and a wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third. Teoscar Hernandez couldn’t come up with the big hit an struck out swinging. However, the pitch kicked away from catcher William Contreras. With first base empty, Hernandez took off for first. Julio broke for home but changed his mind but the initial movement to home drew a toss from Contreras to VerHagen covering the plate. That allowed Teoscar to reach first and load the bases with one out.

AJ Pollock wasted no time as he came to the plate with a big opportunity. After a pitch clock violation made the count 0-1, Pollock smacked a sinker over the glove of a leaping Brendan Donovan at second into the gap. Rodriguez and Suarez both scored on Pollock’s first double of the season to make it 4-2 Mariners. The damage wasn’t done yet. Jarred Kelenic drove a fly ball to left field which was handled without issue by Alec Burleson. Hernandez again had enough speed to score as the throw was off line and it was 5-2 Seattle.

While George Kirby was fantastic, the bullpen was even better. Trevor Gott, Justin Topa, and Paul Sewald faced nine Cardinals and retired them all in order with only one getting the ball out of the infield. Sewald got Nolan Arenado to groundout to end the game thanks to a tremendous defensive play by J.P. Crawford to snap the three-game losing streak giving the Mariners a 5-2 win.

With the game one win, the Mariners (9-11) dropped the Cardinals (8-12) to 0-7 in series openers this season. Seattle will try to wrap up a series win and a winning homestand on Saturday at 6:40pm. The MLB leader in ERA in Luis Castillo (2-0, 0.73 ERA) will look to do just that for the Mariners when he faces his former division rivals. St. Louis will give the ball to Miles Mikolas (0-1, 8.10 ERA) who despite being the Cardinals Opening Day starter, is off to a very rough start to the 2023 season.

Matt’s Takeaways

All it is going to take is for all the pieces in this lineup to click at the same time for the Mariners to turn things around. Friday night might have been the start. Teoscar Hernandez and Jarred Kelenic have been trending upward but if AJ Pollock can join them, the lineup lengthens to eight hitters that can do damage. Timely hitting is what carried the Mariners the last two years. We saw timely hitting on Friday. It doesn’t even need to be hits necessarily. Jarred Kelenic’s sacrifice fly was perfect in that situation in the bottom of the 6th. It is just little things that add up. If the M’s can string some things together, this ship will turn around and get right back on course.

Notable Performances

Cardinals

• Jordan Walker- 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI
• Nolan Arenado- 1-4, R
• Steven Matz (L, 0-3)- 5.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 7 SO

Mariners

• Teoscar Hernandez- 2-3, HR, RBI, 3 R, BB
• AJ Pollock- 1-4, 2B, 2 RBI
• George Kirby (W, 2-1)- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO

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