That’s baseball!: Mariners erupt for double-digit runs against Cardinals in win

A day after being shut out, the Mariners explode for ten runs, win 10-4 and take series against Cardinals

Yesterday, Cardinals starter Kyle Gibson threw an astonishing 112 pitches against the Mariners, none of which resulted in runs scored. Today, the Mariners needed just six pitches to score their first run of the day, and proceeded to pile it on from there against today’s opponent Miles Mikolas and his supporting cast of Cardinals pitchers. Baseball!

Things got off to a rip-roaring start in the first, when Julio Rodríguez led off the game with a double, which started the hits carousel turning. Cal Raleigh and Randy Arozarena followed with back-to-back singles, each of which were hit right back up the middle, and then Luke Raley smacked a double (108 EV) to stake the Mariners to an early 3-0 lead. Justin Turner followed with yet another hit up the middle before Jorge Polanco and J.P. Crawford threatened to put an end to the party with a pair of strikeouts (although Polanco gets credit for making it an eight-pitch battle, at least). However, Mitch Garver (!) came up with a clutch hit, smoking a single to left field to score two runs and stake the Mariners to an early 5-0 lead.

What I find most encouraging here is that none of these hits, with the exception of Raley’s scorching double, are extra-base hits or hit particularly far; rather, they’re a lot of up-the-middle, solid-contact, old-school hits that keep the line moving. I dislike many things about the 2024 Mariners, but maybe one of the biggest is how often they’ve made me channel Noisiest Grandpa at Little League Game. (“Just put it in play, fellas,” I say at least five times per game, emphatically slapping my thigh with a rolled-up Reader’s Digest.)

The boom in the box score came thanks to Arozarena in the second, who personally shortened Mikolas’s outing with this screaming line drive of a homer on a slider that did not slide, pushing the Mariners’ lead out to 7-0.

They could have had even more, as Justin Turner hit a two-out double later in the inning, but Jorge Polanco struck out for the second time in as many at-bats. Mikolas ended the second having thrown 54 pitches, with Polanco seeing 16 of those, or about a third, and all he got for it was a pair of strikeouts. Baseball! (derogatory)

There’s been much less internal yelling at the pitching staff this year, but this was not Luis Castillo’s best start. After a strong 1-2-3 first inning, Castillo seemed to take his foot off the gas some. Despite being gifted a lead that Logan Gilbert can only dream of, Castillo was inefficient with his pitches, falling behind hitters and throwing first-pitch strikes less often /losing 1-1 counts more often than usual. He wound up giving back two of the Mariners’ collection of runs in the second inning, giving up a ground ball double to Iván Herrera after falling behind in yet another count 2-0, and a two-run single to José Fermín, who pounced on the first pitch he saw, a fastball on the plate.

Castillo was able to keep the Cardinals from adding on after that, thanks partially to some help from his defense, and probably not the member of the defense you’re probably thinking of:

That’s right. LeBron James. Cristiano Ronaldo. Justin Turner.

This was actually an important play, as you can see there are two on there thanks to that cardinal sin of a two-out walk and this spicy grounder had “double down the line” written all over it, potentially making this game a much less comfortable 7-4 affair.

That play looms even larger considering what happened in the next inning, when with no outs and one on, Castillo apparently came down poorly on his plant leg, hopping in discomfort after delivering a pitch to Jordan Walker and leaving the game immediately after; Mariners PR later announced it as a left hamstring strain, which is less ideal than the rolled ankle it initially looked like. Trent Thornton took over for Castillo, inheriting his 1-2 count against Walker, and needed all of one pitch for a called strike three, and then proceeded to get the next two outs on no-stress groundouts. The rolled-up Reader’s Digest has been put away. For now.

Thornton had the fifth as well, working around a base hit, ending by striking out Nolan Arenado, and maybe pitching with a little extra pizzazz after the Mariners had given him an extra two runs of support in the top of the inning, finally getting to new Cardinals pitcher Steven Matz, who had been ruthlessly effective after Mikolas’s departure. Justin Turner worked a walk for the first base runner against Matz, who then made his first mistake of the day, hanging a slider to Jorge Polanco that was demolished 419 feet to put the Mariners’ lead back out at 9-2.

After another 1-2-3 effort from Matz in the sixth, Tayler Saucedo had the sixth, and started off by throwing five consecutive balls, prompting Crawford to call a mound meeting. Saucedo threw two more balls and then nine straight strikes, striking out Ivan Herrera and looking at a changeup, getting Jordan Walker on three straight pitches (swinging on the changeup), and ending with a soft groundout—to J.P. Crawford, of course. Crawford might not be producing much at the plate right now but his leadership as captain of the infield remains valuable. Saucedo also worked the seventh, working around a single to post another 0.

The Cardinals got a couple back in the eighth off Eduard Bazardo, who suffered some with ineffective pitch location and a stingy bottom of the zone, and needing to be bailed out by JT Chargois for the final out of the inning. But the Mariners turned that right around against Cardinals mop-up reliever/A.J. Puk cosplayer Chris Roycroft, as Luke Raley and J.P. Crawford each doubled to put a nice round 10 runs on the board. Adrian Monk mode, activated. Chargois put down the Cardinals in the ninth as well, saving the high-leverage arms of the bullpen and securing a series win for the Mariners and a solid finish to what’s been a disappointing road trip. The Mariners, who lost ground in the AL West race yesterday, are still on the outside looking in as far as the playoff picture goes, but hey. That’s baseball.