9/10/25

(Seattle, WA) How quickly things can change in the baseball world as in the span of a week a team can go from bottom of the barrel to on top of the world. The Seattle Mariners are the latest example of that as one week ago they were in a free fall and now they were looking to win their fifth game in a row on Wednesday evening. Just 17 games remained going into Wednesday and with the M’s in control of their own destiny.

The St. Louis Cardinals weren’t so fortunate as their rough week has nearly crushed all hopes that they had of making a late push to the playoffs. At this point they were barely clinging onto hope as they looked to avoid the sweep in the finale.

Rookie Mitch McGreevy would have the pressure on him for St. Louis as the rookie would try to eat up some innings to get the Cardinals bullpen a little bit of rest. For Seattle, it would be Logan Gilbert looking to complete the sweep for Seattle against the team that clearly wanted to make a trade for him during the offseason.

Mariners 4, Cardinals 2 (13 Innings) (Game Three)

Logan Gilbert had a bit of a pitch count issue in the early stages of this one and actually had to throw 11 pitches to the first two batters of the ballgame. The 11th pitch would be an issue however against Iván Herrera. His splitter in the middle of the plate was demolished out to left center for a 411-foot solo home run. It was the 15th of the season for Herrera and gave St. Louis the early jump and 1-0 lead two batters in.

Things looked like they would get really out of hand in the top of the 2nd as Gilbert continued to labor. A walk to Nolan Gorman began the inning before Thomas Saggese singled to but runners on first and second. Pedro Pagés added a single to load the bases with nobody out. José Fermín would be a big strikeout victim for Gilbert for the first out and he just needed a groundball, double play to escape the jam. He wouldn’t get that, but he would get a strikeout of Nathan Church for the second out. He would completely work out of the jam as he sat Lars Nootbaar down on strikes to end the inning and strand the bases loaded with no damage done.

The momentum created by Logan Gilbert carried over into the home half of the 2nd as Seattle got on the board. Singles by Josh Naylor and Jorge Polanco began the inning before Eugenio Suárez moved them to second and third with a groundout. Dominic Canzone then sent a fly ball the other way into left field where it was caught by Alec Burleson. Naylor tagged and scored to get the M’s on the board. Polanco would get left stranded in scoring position after J.P. Crawford popped out but the game was tied at 1-1.

Both teams wasted multiple scoring opportunities throughout the course of this game but both bullpens did tremendous jobs of hanging up zeros to keep the game tied. Seattle loaded the bases with two outs in the 8th, but couldn’t get the clutch hit from Jorge Polanco and watched that scoring opportunity slip away. Strong defense made for a quiet 9th inning as well and the game went to extra innings.

Luke Jackson would pitch the top of the 10th and inherited Iván Herrera at second base as the automatic runner. Alec Burleson hit a hard line drive to Victor Robles in right that kept Herrera at second. Willson Contreras then hit a line drive to center that was caught by Julio but Herrera had taken off to try to score. That resulted in an inning-ending double play to give Seattle a chance to walk it off. A failed bunt by Cole Young hurt but Randy Arozarena singled to put runners on the corners. Riley O’Brien intentionally walked Cal Raleigh to face Julio and it was the right decision as he struck out J-Rod. He would do the same to Josh Naylor and Seattle had wasted a golden opportunity and sent the game to the 11th.

Willson Contreras started the 11th at second with Luke Jackson still on the mound. A grounder to first by Nolan Gorman moved Contreras over to third with one out and he would end up scoring on a single by Thomas Saggese. Saggese would then swipe second but Pedro Pagés struck out for the second out. A grounder by José Fermín ended the inning and sent us to the home half. Josh Naylor would be the automatic runner and he immediately came in to score as Jorge Polanco hit a leadoff double for his 21st of the season to tie the game at 2-2. Unfortunately, Seattle couldn’t walk it off despite Luke Raley laying down a great sacrifice bunt. Two outs at the plate killed the vibes again as the game continued on to the 12th.

Emerson Hancock and Ryan Fernandez both spun scoreless innings in the 12th and the game moved to the 13th. Hancock stayed in for another inning and sat Alec Burleson, Willson Contreras, and Nolan Gorman in order to send us once again to the home half with the M’s having a chance to walk it off. Josh Naylor was the automatic runner but it only took one pitch to send everyone home. Leo Rivas stayed scorching hot since his call up at the end of August and jumped all over a first pitch hanging slider from Fernandez. Rivas tucked it inside the pole down the right field line for his second career home run and his second career walk-off. T-Mobile Park was shaking as the M’s completed the sweep of the Cardinals in a 13-inning thriller, 4-2.

Notable Performances

Cardinals

Mariners

• Leo Rivas- 1-1, Walk-Off HR, 2 RBI, R
• Josh Naylor- 1-5, 3 R, BB
• Logan Gilbert (ND)- 4.2 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 SO

What’s Next

With a five-game winning streak, the Seattle Mariners (78-68) will look to carry that momentum over into their second-to-last divisional series of the season. The M’s will enter the four-game series with the Los Angeles Angels still a game behind Houston in the AL West and a 1/2 games ahead of Texas for the final Wild Card spot. They are now also just 2 1/2 behind both Boston and New York who own the top two Wild Cards in the American League.

Los Angeles stayed in the postseason race longer than expected and actually did a little bit of buying at the deadline. However, the Halos are 22-28 since the All-Star Break and have not won consecutive series in the second half of the season. They did earn a big sweep of the Dodgers but never capitalized on momentum. They are coming off of a series win over Minnesota and the Angels have given the M’s problems this season with the M’s holding a slight 5-4 advantage heading into their final series with the Halos this season.

There is a known Mariner-killer in the Angels lineup that is currently on a power surge since the beginning of August. Jo Adell seems to always make huge plays on defense and find some big hits whenever he faces off with the Mariners. Adell has more home runs (8 in 36 games) against the Mariners than any other team in his career. He has also homered 14 times since the start of August which has seen him fly by Taylor Ward for the team lead while having an OPS of 1.306 this month. Mariner pitching must be extremely careful with him this time around or it could be another series where Jo Adell steals the show and hurts the Mariners playoff chances.

• Game 1, Thursday 6:40pm- José Soriano (10-10, 4.07 ERA) vs. Bryce Miller (4-5, 5.53 ERA)
• Game 2, Friday 7:10pm (Apple TV+)- Yusei Kikuchi (6-11, 4.18 ERA) vs. Luis Castillo (9-8, 3.85 ERA)
• Game 3, Saturday 6:40pm- Mitch Farris (1-0, 2.45 ERA) vs. Bryan Woo (13-7, 3.02 ERA)
• Game 4, Sunday 1:10pm- Kyle Hendricks (7-9, 4.58 ERA) vs. George Kirby (8-7, 4.56 ERA)

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