At the end of Friday night’s MLB action, we have a new leader in the NL Central race.
The St. Louis Cardinals broke out of a tie with the Pittsburgh Pirates (who lost on Friday), courtesy of a 2-1 win over the Seattle Mariners. Scoring plays were few and far between during the game, and it was almost fitting to see the game-winning run score as a result of a passed ball by rookie catcher Mike Zunino rather than an offensive display.
Offensively, the Cards managed only 4 hits, but they timed them well and the club received a quality pitching effort from ace Adam Wainwright. The right-hander threw 8 big-time innings, allowing only 1 run on 6 hits while striking out 6 batters. Unfortunately, Wainwright couldn’t get another win for his personal record, but if there was an MVP of this game, he was certainly it.
For the Mariners, this is yet another devastating loss, but their pain can be mitigated by a few positives. While Zunino let in the winning run on the aforementioned passed ball, he did blast his 3rd career home run for the team’s only run of the night. In addition, Seattle received 7 spectacular innings from the “flying salmon” (copyright to ESPN’s Matthew Berry and Nate Ravitz) in Hisashi Iwakuma. Iwakuma lowered his ERA to 2.87 with those shutout frames, and provided more hope for M’s fans that Felix Hernandez will have a running mate for the future.
Welcome back to 1st place, St. Louis Cardinals.