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Cardinals fight all night long but lose 5-4 to Mariners

Beckham delivers with late pinch-hit homer, Mariners top Cardinals in series opener
Credit: AP
St. Louis Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty

Tuesday’s Game Report: Mariners 5, Cardinals 4

Four Cardinals’ relievers combined to allow only one hit as they tried to bail out Jack Flaherty from another abbreviated start on Tuesday night in Seattle.

That was one hit too many.

Giovanny Gallegos gave up a pinch-hit homer to Tim Beckham leading off the eighth inning that broke a 4-4 tie and gave the Mariners the win after the Cardinals had battled back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game.

Gallegos, who has been one of the Cardinals’ most reliable relievers this season, faced four batters and struck out three of them but was burned by the home run. Since he gave up a home run on May 24, Gallegos had allowed only one run over his previous 17 innings.

The Cardinals lost for the sixth time in their last seven games and failed to gain a game on the Cubs and Brewers in the division, both of whom also lost on Tuesday night.

Here is how the game broke down:

At the plate: The Cardinals scored all of their runs on home runs, two solo blasts from Jose Martinez and a two-run shot by Yairo Munoz, his first of the season, which tied the game in the seventh … Martinez hit his sixth homer of the season in the first inning and homered again in the sixth, the fourth two-homer game of his career and the fourth by a Cardinals’ hitter this season … In the seventh, Kolten Wong doubled with two outs before the homer by Munoz, who was hitting leadoff and playing third base … After the homer, Cardinals hitters struck out in six of their last eight at-bats in the game. Dexter Fowler doubled with one out in the ninth but was left on base as Tommy Edman struck out and Wong grounded out … Tyler O’Neill, starting again in left field, had a single and double and struck out twice.

On the mound: Flaherty failed to get through the fifth inning for the third time in his last five starts, coming out after 4 2/3 innings in which he threw 103 pitches to get 14 outs. One of his four walks came with the bases loaded in the second, when the Mariners scored twice, and he then gave up his 19thhomer of the year, a two-run homer by Omar Narvaez in the fifth, which followed a leadoff walk … Flaherty is now 0-2 with six no-decisions in his eight starts since his last win on May 14 … Dominic Leone, Tyler Webb, Gallegos and Andrew Miller combined to pitch the final 3 1/3 innings.

Key stat: One of Flaherty’s problems this season has been falling behind in the count and he did that again in this start, throwing only 13 first-pitch strikes to the 25 hitters he faced.

Worth noting: After he missed the last four games, the Cardinals put Matt Carpenter on the injured list on Tuesday, retroactive to June 29. The team said he was suffering from a lower back strain … John Brebbia, who went on paternity leave on Saturday, was activated to take Carpenter’s roster spot … The Cardinals announced the signings of 23 international free agents on Tuesday, 19 of whom are 16 years old. The headliners of the group appear to be 6-foot-3 right-handed pitcher Jose Davila and shortstop Jeremy Rivas, both from Venezuela. Rivas is one of 11 signees who was born in 2003. Other signings came from the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Mexico.

Looking ahead: Adam Wainwright will get the start on Wednesday night in the second game of the series. It will be Wainwright’s first start in Seattle in his career, the 32nd stadium he has played in during his years with the Cardinals. Former Cardinal Mike Leake will start for Seattle. Another former Cardinal in the Mariners’ rotation, Marco Gonzales, is not scheduled to start in this three-game series.

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