By MATT PIKE
In a game that featured eight home runs combined, the St. Louis Cardinals fell again to the Seattle Mariners at Busch Stadium 11-9.
Julio Rodríguez, Will Wilson and Cole Young each homered, and Leo Rivas hit a two-run single in the ninth to help the Mariners Nathan Church homered twice and had four RBIs, JJ Wetherholt and Iván Herrera hit back-to-back home runs to leadoff the bottom of the first inning, and Pedro Pagés also homered for St. Louis. The game was tied 2-2 after the first inning, Rodríguez's two run shot coming in the top half, scoring Cal Raleigh.
Wilson hit his first career home run in the second inning, a two run home run scoring Mitch Garver, to give Seattle a 4-2 lead. In the bottom half of the second the Cardinals got one run back as Church hit his first home run of the game to cut the Mariners lead to one run.
In the third inning, the Cardinals took their first lead of the game with a four run inning. With two on and one out, Masyn Winn hit a game-tying RBI single down the right-field line, scoring Jordan Walker, to extend his hitting streak to 10 games. A sacrifice fly from Church gave St. Louis a one run lead, driving in Nolan Gorman before Pagés hit a two run home run, bringing home Winn, to cap the scoring giving the Cardinals 7-4 lead.
Young hit his home run in the fourth inning to cut the lead to two runs. Then in the fifth the lead was trimmed to one on a sacrifice fly by former Cardinal Randy Arozarena drove in Rodríguez. A run of three straight one run innings for Seattle ended in the sixth, tying the game as Young scored on an RBI single from Dominic Canzone making the game 7-7 at the end of six innings.
Church hit a two-run homer to right-center field in the seventh inning to pull the Cardinals ahead 9-7 for his second home run of the game. But, in the eighth inning, Garver and Young hit back-to-back singles off JoJo Romero to leadoff the inning, and Connor Joe stroked a pinch-hit, two-run single off Riley O’Brien to tie the game once again at 9-9 at the end of eight innings.
In the ninth inning, Rivas lined the bases-loaded hit off O’Brien, who had not allowed an earned run in 13 previous appearances this season, driving in J.P Crawford and Garver to make it 11-9. After, Matt Brash pitched a scoreless eighth inning, Andrés Muñoz pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his fifth save.
Matthew Liberatore started for the Cardinals and allowed five runs, all coming via home runs, in 3.1 innings giving up eight hits and striking out three while walking one. O'Brien fell to 3-1 on the season, taking the loss, giving up two runs on four hits while striking out one and walking one. At the plate, Church was 2-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI's. Wetherholt was 3-for-5 with a home run and one RBI. Pagés was 3-for-3 with a home run and two RBIs.
St. Louis and Seattle wrap up their series tomorrow. Michael McGreevy (1-2, 3.29, 15K's) takes the mound for the Cardinals against Emerson Hancock (2-1, 2.83 ERA, 28K's) for the Mariners. First pitch is at 1:15pm, pregame will begin near 1:05 on KY 102 (102.5FM).
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