Mariners rally twice to beat Cardinals behind season-high 19 hits

Adam Jude, The Seattle Times on Apr 25, 2026

Published in Baseball

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ST. LOUIS — This game had a little bit everything from just about everyone, and the biggest contribution came from the one guy who needed it the most.

Leo Rivas, mired in a 5 for 44 funk, delivered a bases-loaded in the top of the ninth inning to drive in the winning runs in the Mariners’ wild 11-9 come-from-behind victory over the Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

Rivas’ single came against St. Louis closer Riley O’Brien, a former M’s reliever who hadn’t allowed a run in his first 13 appearances of the season.

Julio Rodríguez, Will Wilson and Cole Young all homered, and Rivas came off the bench and delivered a bases-loaded single to drive in the winning runs in the ninth inning as the Mariners offense exploded for a season-high 19 hits.

The Mariners (13-15) rallied from a 7-4 deficit in the third inning and rallied again after falling behind 9-7 in the seventh inning.

M’s manager Dan Wilson unloaded his bench and got at least one hit from 12 of the 13 hitters used.

Dominic Canzone and Connor Joe came off the bench with clutch pinch-hit singles.

Canzone drove in Young from second base to tie the score in the sixth inning, and Joe had a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning to drive in Garver and Young to tie the score again, at 9-9.

Rivas entered the game as a defensive replacement for Wilson at third base, and he had a key sacrifice bunt in the eighth inning that set up Joe’s pinch-hit heroics.

Rivas had been mired in a 2 for 23 funk coming into Saturday. He came back around in the ninth with the bases loaded. J.P. Crawford reached on a bunt single, Garver walked and Young was hit in the foot by a slider.

On O’Brien’s first pitch, Rivas lined a single up the middle to drive in Crawford and Garver to give the M’s an 11-9 lead.

Andrés Muñoz closed it out for the second day in a row and the Mariners won their first road series of the season.

Mitch Garver was robbed of what would have been the Mariners’ fourth homer by Cardinals left fielder Nathan Church in the sixth inning.

That was, incredibly, the fifth time a Mariners hitter has been robbed off a homer in the first 28 games. Angels right fielder Jo Adell robbed Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor and Crawford on April 4 (in a 1-0 Angles win), and San Diego center fielder Jackson Merrill robbed Rodríguez on April 15.

Church had what had to be the best game of his career Saturday. He hit a homer off Woo in the second inning, stole a homer from Garver in the sixth and then homered again off Cooper Criswell in the seventh, a two-run shot to give St. Louis a 9-7 lead.

In the first inning, Rodríguez hit a two-run blast way out to left field off St. Louis left-hander Matthew Liberatore to give the M’s a 2-0 lead.

Wilson, with his first swing as a Mariner, hit his first major-league homer in the second inning, a two-run shot out to left field to score Garver and give the M’s a 4-2 lead. Wilson was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma on Monday when the Mariners placed third baseman Brendan Donovan, an All-Star with the Cardinals last year, on the 10-day injured list.

Young reached base four times, coming up a triple short of the cycle. He and followed with a 408-foot double off the top of the wall in straightaway center field, just missing another homer by inches.

The Cardinals roughed up M’s starter Bryan Woo, who allowed seven runs and four home runs, both matching his career highs.

Physically, Woo said he felt fine. He was asked if he might have been tipping his pitches Saturday and he said that was something he would review in film study.

Woo came into Saturday as one of four starting pitchers in the majors this season who hadn’t allowed a HR through his first five starts.

“I sucked today, and the offense picked me up, and that’s baseball,” Woo said. “You know, it happens. But I can’t say enough about just , the relentless effort of just keep chipping away … and they just kept going. So nothing but credit and applause and thank you to the offense.”

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