Woo Quality Start, Big Sixth Inning Combine to Propel Mariners to 4-2 Victory over Cardinals
SEATTLE, Wash. — It wasn’t the no-holds-barred blowout that Seattle’s sluggers twice inflicted on the Atlanta Braves over the weekend, but the Mariners got their third straight win on Monday night due to a stellar pitching performance complemented by one big inning for the Seattle Mariners that provided all the offense they needed to gain a half game on the Astros in the chase for the AL West.
Woo-tiful Return to Form
Although Bryan Woo’s 25-game six innings pitched streak came to an unfortunate end on August 27 against the Padres (and he only got five innings on September 2 in Tampa), the Mariner ace started out Monday night back in form. He got four strikeouts through the first three innings, leaning heavily on his fastballs but showing some nasty sweepers and changeups to keep the Cardinals guessing.
There were a couple intermittent issues for Woo, however, as a few too many first-pitch balls (and a tight zone from home plate umpire Chris Guccione) raised his pitch count higher than the Mariners would have otherwise liked. But the difference between a great start and a good start ended up being a couple heaters in the top of the fourth.
With one away, Iván Herrera took an 0-1 sinker right back up the middle on a line into the center field grass. Woo attacked Alec Burleson with an 0-1 fastball low and in, but the Cardinal first baseman was all over it. The ball soared well over Julio Rodríguez’ head and over the center field wall for a two-run shot.
Woo settled down after that, striking out the remaining two batters in the fourth and working an easy fifth. Although he got his eighth strikeout against Victor Scott II, he faced a little bit of trouble in the form of a Lars Nootbaar single. Caleb Ferguson began warming in the bullpen in case Woo began to decline.
But Seattle’s ace is not someone to underestimate. Herrera hit a seeing-eye lineout to Suárez for the second out of the frame and then Burleson—who had put all wood on the low heater in the fourth—got spun like a top on 96 miles an hour a half foot over the plate. That was Woo’s ninth strikeout, tying a career best.
The nonet of K’s complemented a very Woo-esque zero walks. Of the starter’s 95 pitches, 66 were strikes, and the vast majority of those strikes were quality pitches painted on the black. The resurgent quality start from the Mariners ace put the team in a good position to win.
Bats Fall Back to Earth Early On
Unfortunately for Seattle, it seemed whatever caused their offensive explosion in Atlanta didn’t get on the flight to Sea-Tac. Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas, who came into the game with a 4.89 ERA, opened with three hitless innings on 41 pitches.
The Mariners offense seems to have gone back to being stuck a step behind the opposing pitcher, who got away with good pitches to hit in the first (due to the M’s being too patient) and got bad contact on bad pitches in the second (due to the M’s not being patient enough). Seattle did improve their approach in the bottom of the third, but didn’t get enough wood on the ball for any hits.
The fourth inning showed some promise, as Randy Arozarena led off the inning with a double down the line, although he slowed down on his way to second and nearly got himself thrown out. He made up for it during Julio Rodríguez’ at-bat, however, as the Mariners center fielder hit a slow roller to third for what should have been an easy second out—had Arozarena not danced off second base and confused Cardinal third baseman Nolan Gorman long enough to allow Rodríguez to reach first.
But it was all for naught: Josh Naylor tapped it back to Mikolas for the inning-ending double play, and the Cardinal starter still had his shutout.
RISP woes continued in the fifth. This time, it was Jorge Polanco leading off with a double, but Eugenio Suárez and J.P. Crawford tapped the ball into soft contact outs before Mikolas gunned down Victor Robles on three pitches.
The issue for the Mariners in these middle innings (aside from Robles getting spun around) was that the team had a good approach, worked favorable counts, and got the exact pitches they should be looking for—only to get weak contact for easy groundouts and cans of corn in the outfield. Success in process and success in result all the way up until they got the pitch to hit, and then it was failure in both: that’s not the way to score runs in the big leagues.
Fortunes Flip in Sixth
As it turned out, the Seattle Mariners needed just one good inning from the bats in order to come away with the victory. Like the previous two frames, it started off with the leadoff man getting aboard the basepaths, but when it came to scoring runs, the third time was indeed the charm.
Leo Rivas put together perhaps the best single plate appearance of any Mariner on Monday, working a nine-pitch leadoff walk. Arozarena whacked a ball up the middle, taking advantage of Masyn Winn playing far too close to get the Mariners to a no-out, first-and-third situation. Looking to give his fireman a little extra time to prepare, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol spent a good couple minutes sitting in the dugout before strolling out to the mound to call in Gordon Graceffo. A comparatively loud boo emanated from the 22,899 fans at T-Mobile Park who wanted to see round two of the Raleigh-Mikolas Mustache Melee.
For the Cardinals, the cure was worse than the disease, as Graceffo walked Big Dumper on four pitches to load the bases with nobody out. The beleaguered reliever got a generous strike one call on Julio Rodríguez but promptly grooved a slider right down the middle.
Rodríguez scorched the ball into left. The ball left the bat at 105.5 miles an hour, a speed that allowed it to barely escape Winn’s grasp and bounce into left field. St. Louis nearly had a play at second, that’s how much of a scorcher Rodríguez had hit. Everyone moved up a station as the M’s had their first run of the ballgame, enough to cut the Cardinals’ slim lead in half.
Josh Naylor wasted no time giving Seattle the lead, as Graceffo dropped another middle-middle slider and Naylor belted it into the gap in right center field. The ball one-hopped the fence, with Arozarena and Raleigh scoring trivially. Unfortunately for the Mariners, Rodríguez followed them only to be gunned down by a mile and a half for the inning’s first out.
Had it not been for Naylor’s wits on the basepaths, that may have ended up costing Seattle a run. But the Mariner first baseman keenly noticed that Graceffo wasn’t paying the slightest iota of attention to him, and so he easily swiped third base—a move that allowed him to score on a following sacrifice fly from Jorge Polanco and give the Mariners a 4-2 lead.
Bullpen Blows Down Birds
St. Louis had the misfortune of facing Seattle’s top trio of relievers: Matt Brash, Eduard Bazardo, and Andrés Muñoz. Of the three bullpen arms Dan Wilson went to on Monday, it was Brash who had the nastiest stuff, establishing a bountiful Cardinal-hunting season that his successors nicely continued.
Bazardo, just like Brash, didn’t allow a single hit. Muñoz, on the other hand, did face a slight amount of difficulty, giving a one-out free pass to Iván Herrera. But Seattle’s closer finished out his 33rd save of the season with two quick strikeouts on Nolan Gorman and Masyn Winn, giving Seattle their third win in a row.
Both strikeouts came on putaway sliders located on the corners of the plate, a location which united each Mariners pitcher on Monday. After a long stretch of crooked numbers on the road, the inaugural game against St. Louis was the third straight contest where the Mariners conceded just two runs.
On Deck
With their Monday victory over the Cardinals, the Mariners improved to 76-68 on the 2024 season and gained a half game on the Houston Astros in the AL West while keeping distance from the victorious Texas Rangers and gaining a game on the defeated Kansas City Royals.
Seattle still holds the third wild card by a margin of one and a half games over the Rangers, while the Cleveland Guardians are two and a half behind and the Royals trail by three games. As the end of the season quickly approaches, each victory for the Mariners—and loss by their chasers—gets the team one step closer to the promised land.
