Four minutes later and 2,000 miles away, Randy Arozarena completed one of the biggest swings of the season in the American League West.
Arozarena belted a mammoth three-run home run to give the Mariners the lead in the third inning, just minutes after the Houston Astros blew a two-run ninth-inning lead in a what turned into a walkoff loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto.
Josh Naylor followed an inning later with a go-ahead home run way out to right field, and the Mariners held on for a 5-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park to pull within one game of the Astros in the AL West with 17 games remaining in the regular season.
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Further distancing themselves from a dreadful East Coast road trip last week, the Mariners (77-68) won their fourth straight game to maintain their 1.5-game lead over the Texas Rangers for the third and final AL wild-card spot.
After another sluggish start from George Kirby, M’s relievers Caleb Ferguson, Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier, Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz were nearly flawless over the final five innings, helping the Mariners improve to 18-6 at home since the All-Star break.
With the Mariners trailing 2-0, Arozarena mashed his 27th home run 405 feet out to left field, off the facade of the upper deck, to give the Mariners a 3-2 lead in the third inning.
Arozarena homered off Cardinals left-hander Matthew Liberatore, the player for whom Arozarena was traded from St. Louis to Tampa Bay in January 2020.
After the Cardinals tied it up at 3-3 off Kirby in the top of the fourth inning, Naylor belted a 415-foot solo blast off Liberatore in the bottom of the fourth to give the Mariners a 4-3 lead.
It was Naylor’s 19th homer of the season, eighth since being traded to Seattle and third in his past four games.
With the bases loaded, Arozarena added a sacrifice fly to deep right field, scoring Mitch Garver to extend the Mariners’ lead to 5-3 later in the fourth.
Kirby was coming off the worst start of his career on the road against the Tampa Bay Rays last week, when he surrendered eight runs (seven earned) in just two innings.
He wasn’t sharp Tuesday, either.
The Cardinals had three straight hits off Kirby in the second inning to take a 2-0 lead, with a double from Nolan Gorman getting just past the diving effort from Arozarena near the left-field line.
Kirby stranded the bases loaded in the fourth inning when he got Ivan Herrera to ground out to end the threat.
That ended Kirby’s night. He needed 85 pitches to get through those four innings, and he allowed seven hits while inducing just three swings-and-misses.