9/8/25

(Seattle, WA) After another long and unsuccessful road trip, the Seattle Mariners returned home on Monday night to begin a seven-game homestand in which they would need to stack up some wins as the playoff race tightens up. Texas and Kansas City remain right behind the M’s while Houston did not capitalize on the Mariners skid and are still within striking distance of Seattle.

First up on the homestand would be a three-game series with an interleague foe in the St. Louis Cardinals. The Red Birds remain on the fringe of the NL Wild Card chase but would need to have a plethora of good fortunes to make up that ground. It also meant that they would need to catch fire which they hoped would begin in the Pacific Northwest against a team that they haven’t beaten in a series since 2019.

In the opening game of the set, Seattle would get to throw their ace and most reliable starter this season in Bryan Woo. Woo has seemed to be a bit rattled after seeing his six plus inning streak come to an end, but still grinded out a solid start since. On the other side would be Miles Mikolas for the Cardinals who reinvented himself in Japan to become an All-Star but has really struggled in his last three seasons with an ERA near 5.00

Mariners 4, Cardinals 2 (Game One)

Nine up and nine down was the story the first time through the order for both Bryan Woo and Miles Mikolas. Not a single batter reached for either team in the first three innings as we were well on our way to a pitchers duel. In the top of the 4th, St. Louis got the first hit of the game with a one-out single by Iván Herrera. That brought Alec Burleson to the plate and his power showed up and got the Cardinals on the board. A fastball from Woo caught too much of the inner half and Burleson sent a high fly ball out of the center field wall for a two-run home run. The blast was Burleson’s 17th of the season and gave St. Louis a 2-0 lead

Seattle wouldn’t take much longer to get their first hit as Randy Arozarena hit his 30th double of the season to lead off the bottom of the 4th. Cal Raleigh’s fly out to center wasn’t deep enough to move him over and Julio Rodríguez hit an infield single that also kept Randy at second. Josh Naylor then hit into an inning ending double play to kill that threat. In the bottom of the 5th, Jorge Polanco hit a leadoff double for his 19th of the year. He would move up to third on a J.P. Crawford groundout but was also left stranded as Victor Robles went down on strikes. A couple of missed opportunities brought back a familiar feeling to Mariner fans as they continued to trail 2-0.

A great diving catch by Eugenio Suárez helped Woo get through the 6th without allowing another run. If the M’s do get to the postseason, it will be hard to give the ball to someone other than Bryan Woo with how he has performed this season. He was back to his usual ways with a quality start to set the tone for the homestand. He would go six innings and allowed just the two runs on three hits without a walk and tied his career-high in strikeouts once again with nine.

With a strong start, the offense came through to help out their pitcher after his last inning of work. In the bottom of the 6th, a walk to Leo Rivas was followed by a single for Randy Arozarena to put runners on the corners with nobody out. Oli Marmol went to his bullpen and brought Gordon Graceffo into the game to keep Cal Raleigh hitting lefty. Raleigh never saw a strike and walked to load the bases for Julio. J-Rod smoked a 105.5-mph line drive just off the glove of a diving Masyn Winn and into left field. Everyone moved up 90-feet as the M’s were on the board. Josh Naylor then jumped on a first pitch, hanging curve and launched it to the wall in center. Arozarena and Raleigh scored while Julio was thrown out at the plate on Naylor’s 25th double of the year. He would then steal third for his 25th stolen base before scoring on a sacrifice fly to deep right field by Jorge Polanco. Just like that the vibes had changed as the Mariners had grabbed a 4-2 lead.

Matt Brash and Eduard Bazardo did their jobs as they both pitched 1-2-3 innings in the 7th and 8th. That left Andrés Muñoz for the 9th and he picked up where they left off with a fly ball to left by Lars Nootbaar for the first out. He would then walk Iván Herrera to bring the tying run to the plate in Alec Burleson. After homering earlier in the game, this was a much more difficult at-bat for the first baseman as he went down swinging on four pitches for the second out. Nolan Gorman didn’t fare any better as he went down swinging on a slider to finish the game. The four-run 6th inning was enough for the Mariners on Monday night as they took down the Cardinals on their final Monday game of the regular season, 4-2.

Notable Performances

Cardinals

Mariners

• Bryan Woo (W, 13-7)- 6 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 SO
• Josh Naylor- 1-3, 2B, 2 RBI, R, SB
• Julio Rodríguez- 2-4, RBI

What’s Next

Seattle (76-68) did themselves a huge favor on Monday night as they took advantage of Houston’s day off to close the gap between the two by half of  a game. The M’s now trail the Astros by just two games in the AL West with a big three-game series between the two looming large. Texas would shutout Milwaukee while Cleveland hammered Kansas City 10-2 on Monday. The Mariners are still 1 1/2 games up on the Rangers, 2 1/2 ahead of Cleveland, three over Kansas City, and 4 1/2 ahead of Tampa Bay for the final Wild Card spot. All 30 teams are in action on Tuesday.

An early opportunity to lock up the series awaits the Mariners in game two with St. Louis on Tuesday night at 6:40pm. The M’s will once again face another lefty as Matthew Liberatore (7-11, 4.15 ERA) gets the start for the Cardinals. Liberatore had a start skipped in July due to fatigue issues he began experiencing in June and hasn’t gone more than 5 1/3 innings since June. He has given up nine home runs in 44 1/3 innings since the beginning of July. George Kirby (8-7, 4.47 ERA) will take the ball in game two for Seattle looking to erase a miserable start in Tampa Bay his last time out when he only lasted two innings.

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