Uncle Charlie and Mike Leake dueled it out tonight, both starters racking up the strikeout totals, both having some wicked movement on their pitches.
Waino would handout 3 free passes over his 5+ IP, while picking up 6 strikeouts. The Mariners wouldn’t crack Waino until the 5th inning when Dylan Moore unloaded his 4th HR of the season on a 2-0 fastball.
The Mariners would add another run in the 6th, as Santana greeted Waino with a single to LF, bringing an end to his evening.
Waino’s line: (5+ IP, 4 hits, 2 er, 3 bb, 6 k’s)
Tyler Webb would relieve Waino, and immediately serve up a single to Vogelbach down the RF line, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. With Narváez batting, Webb would fire a wild pitch, allowing Santana to score and Vogelbach to move into scoring position, 2-0 Mariners. Kyle Seager would pop out to KoWo for the second out. Shildt turned back to his pen, going with the new dad, also my dad, John Brebbia.
Brebbia was the savior of this game, honestly. Well at least before Tommy Edman got his chance to save the night.
Brebbia would pitch 2.1 innings out of the Cards pen, striking out 6 of the 7 batters he faced. And Brebbia was doing it with the ole country hardball. Brebbia would strikeout: Murphy, Moore, Gordon, Crawford, Santana, and Vogelbach.
Meanwhile, Mike Leake was just cruising along, going complete beast mode.
Leake would shut down the bats thru his 7.2IP, giving up 5 hits, walking none, striking out 7.
Austin Adams would come in for relief, the second night in a row. He wasn’t as sharp tonight as he was last night. His lethal slider was a tad bit flat.
Cafecíto started the comeback train, leading off the 9th with a single into RF. Adams bounced back with a strikeout of Deez, but Goldy kept the line moving, ripping his second hit of the night, a single into LF to extend the night to the ex-Mariner, Prince Sex. Adams looked to strikeout O’Neill with a front door slider on a 2-2 count, but O’Neill got bailed out and was able to work a walk to load the bases for Dex.
The lefty, Roenis Elías would come in and try and maneuver out of the jam, flipping Dex over to the right-side of the plate. Dex delivered, lining an rbi single past Gordon into RF to score Café to make it a 2-1 game. Yadi cashed in next with a liner sac-fly to Moore in LF, as Goldy made a heads up play to tag up quickly to tie the game 2-2.
With KoWo’s spot coming up (already 3 k’s on the night), Shildt would elect to pinch-hit with the switch-hitting, Tommy Edman. Edman came thru in the most remarkable fashion, tattooing a 95mph 2-2 fastball from Elías for a 3run shot to LF, putting the Cards on top 5-2.
Andrew Miller and Tsunami would tag-team the bottom of the 9th. Miller would face the first two lefties, Narváez and Seager. Narváez would strikeout whiffing at the best Miller slider of the season, imo. And Seager would strikeout looking on a perfectly executed front door slider.
Tsunami would come in for the final out vs Tom Murphy, getting him to fly out to Bader to secure the comeback victory.
BACK TO (.500)
Michael Wacha (5-4, 5.30) gets the ball on Independence Day, facing off against another opener, as it is still TBD as I write this. First pitch on this beautiful holiday, 3:10pm c/t.
Everyone have a safe and fun 4th, shoot off some cool fireworks and drink some good beer with even better people.
Cheers, Stew