Josh Naylor Is Doing the Impossible, and the Mariners Needed It Against St. Louis

Josh Naylor just carried the Mariners to a 3-2 win over the Cardinals at Busch Stadium, and if you're not paying attention to what he's doing right now, you're missing one of the wildest stats in baseball. The guy is heating up after a rough start to the season, and Friday night he delivered the clutch homer that gave Seattle the edge in a game it badly needed.

The Go-Ahead Blast That Started Everything

With the score tied in the sixth inning, Naylor stepped up and turned on a 94.4-mph fastball from St. Louis starter Andre Pallante, low and in. The result? A no-doubt line-drive shot out to right field. The exit velo was 107.3 mph, traveling 418 feet. It was his third homer of the season, and it gave the Mariners exactly the jolt they needed early in a six-game Midwest road trip. Before this win, Seattle had lost eight of its first nine road games.

George Kirby kept the Cardinals in check through six innings, allowing two runs on five hits and setting up the offense to do its damage. The bullpen handled the rest, with Andrés Muñoz closing it out in the ninth despite some early trouble. A hard-hit ball off Nolan Gorman at 111.9 mph came right at right fielder Rob Refsnyder for the first out, and Muñoz struck out Ramon Urías to end it.

The Stolen Base That Defies All Logic

But here's where Naylor's night gets absolutely ridiculous. In the fourth inning, after drawing a six-pitch walk off Pallante, Naylor took off for second base before the next pitch was even thrown. He got such a huge jump that he basically walked the last 15 feet to the bag, reaching without a throw from Cardinals catcher Iván Herrera.

And this is where it gets unbelievable: in 91 games with the Mariners (including playoffs), Naylor is a perfect 23 for 23 in stolen-base attempts. All 23. No failures. Out of 352 players measured this season, Naylor ranks 351st in sprint speed at 23.9 feet per second. He's the slowest guy out there, and yet he hasn't been thrown out once. It might be the most absurd stat in baseball right now.

The Rest of the Victory

The Mariners scored first when Cole Young's two-out single in the second drove in Randy Arozarena, who had doubled into the right-center gap and advanced to third on Luke Raley's fly out. That made it 1-0. In the fourth, Naylor came around to score from second on Dominic Canzone's single to left, extending it to 2-0. The Cardinals tied it at 2-2 on Masyn Winn's soft 70.7-mph single off Kirby in the bottom of the fourth. Naylor's sixth-inning homer put the game away at 3-2, and that's how it stayed. Seattle moves forward on this road trip knowing it got the win it needed.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.