The combination of Wacha/ Ponce would battle with the combination of Carasiti/ Milone to take the rubber match.
Carasiti, the opener, opening his second game of the series, would toss a 15 pitch scoreless 1st inning before turning things over to the veteran lefty, Tommy Milone. Carasiti would strikeout Edman (leading off playing 2B after the previous night’s outcome) and Goldy in his lone inning, working around a one out single to Café.
Wacha on the other hand just simply didn’t have it. After stringing together two good starts, Wacha ran back into a wall.
J.P. Crawford would welcome Wacha to the game, sending a floating changeup over the wall in RF for his 4th HR of the season, making it 1-0 Mariners.
Tommy Milone took over for Carasiti in the top of the 2nd, running into a bit of trouble himself.
Milone and Wacha would both get huge double plays their next half innings. Milone getting Dex to bounce into a twin killing and Wacha getting Moore to ground into an inning ending double play after Beckham led off with a walk.
Daddy Wieters, starting for Yadi, would get the Cards on the board, tying the game 1-1. Wieters would smack his second HR from the right-side, and his second HR in as many at bats from that side of the plate. Who could’ve predicted that?
The Mariners would get a couple runs back in the bottom of the 3rd, getting things kicked off with a Dee Gordon single, followed by a Mallex Smith double down the LF line. Crawford then drove in his second run of the game, grounding out to Edman, scoring Gordon to make it 2-1 Mariners. After getting Santana to ground out softly to Muñoz at 3B, Wacha would serve up an rbi single to Vogelbach, extending the lead for the Mariners to 3-1.
But the Cardinals had an answer of their own. O’Neill would rip a one out single to LF, his second hit of the afternoon vs Milone to bring up the tying run in Dexter Fowler.
Get this, Dex would tie the game with one swing of the bat, from the RIGHT-SIDE!! What is going on with these switch-hitters going yard from the right-side this series? (Edman, Wieters, Fowler)
Dex would crank a 1-2, 88mph fastball to LF to make it a brand new game at 3-3.
Mike Shildt would be ejected a batter later. With Muñoz at the dish, home plate umpire, Rob Drake, wouldn’t allow time to Muñoz. Muñoz stepped out of the box and Drake started barking at him, barking in a way to show a player up and belittle him. Shildt wasn’t having that BS and went out there to let Drake know what’s up. Drake played stupid, per the usual for mlb umpires and eventually couldn’t handle hearing the truth, so he sent Mike Shildt off for an early shower.
Tim Beckham would give the Mariners the lead right back, leading off the bottom of the 4th with a HR to LF, his second of the series. After getting Nola to ground out and walking Moore on 4 pitches, Marmol would take Wacha out, relieving him with Ponce.
Ponce flexed his junk over the next 2.2 innings, holding the Mariners out of the hit column, while striking out three.
The defense would turn a couple double plays behind Ponce, too. The first coming right when he entered. A strike ‘em out, throw ‘em out vs Gordon and Moore.
Vogelbach would work a leadoff walk in the bottom of the 6th, but be erased on an inning ending double play off the bat of Beckham, 6-4-3 on the put out.
The cardiac Cards would strike in the top of the 7th. With Milone still pitching, Dex would draw a leadoff walk, Muñoz would strikeout, and Harry would single to LF to put two runners on. Servais would go to his pen with Wieters coming up, which seemed odd since he’d be flipping him back to his better side batting left-handed.
Festa would come in and immediately serve up a walk to load the bases for Tommy Edman. Probably the one guy the Mariners didn’t wanna see. And my gosh, Tommy did the thing again. Well not THAT thing, but he came close on a foul ball down the RF line just missing the foul/fair pole by inches.
But Edman wouldn’t let the moment get to him, as he ripped a single into RF to plate Dex and Harry to give the Birds the 5-4 lead. The kid is clutch.
G-Spot Gant, Miller, and Tsunami would each throw an inning over the final three, keeping the score at 5-4 for a Cardinals victory and series win.
Miller would pick up two huge strikeouts, back-to-back, after a wild pitch allowed Smith and Santana to move up to 3B and 2B. Miller would get Vogelbach and Narváez, Vogelbach would go down on a fastball (weird) and Narváez would whiff at a beautiful slider off the plate.
Tsunami would pick up his 3rd save of the season, getting Beckham to strikeout on a slide piece and followed that getting Seager (pinch-hitting) and Gordon to ground out to secure the victory.
With the win, the Cardinals (43-42) are a game above the (.500) mark and head to San Francisco to take on the Giants (39-47), beginning their final series before the All-Star break.
Dakota Hudson (6-4, 3.40) looks to rebound after getting shelled his last start, taking on the lefty, Drew Pomeranz* (2-8, 6.25). First pitch from Oracle Park 9:15pm c/t.
Cheers, Stew