The Emerald City's M's Are Crushing, But St. Louis Is 0-for-17 With RISP and Nobody Knows Why

Okay, M's fans, let's just get this out of the way right now: our Mariners absolutely WENT OFF last night! A dominant 9-1 win over the Athletics? That's what we love to see, right?! Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, the whole crew putting in work! But while we're out here celebrating in the Emerald City, you gotta look around the league and wonder what in the actual heck is going on with some other teams. Case in point: the St. Louis Cardinals are a full-blown mess, and their stats from a recent series are just jaw-dropping bad.

What Even IS Happening in St. Louis?!

Seriously, has anyone checked on the Cardinals lately? Because after taking a quick glance at their schedule, it looks like a train wreck. This squad has been slogging through the NL Central like it's a mud pit. They dropped two of three games to the Pittsburgh Pirates, then only managed to split a weather-shortened series against the Cincinnati Reds. And the cherry on top of this disaster sundae? They got absolutely, positively SWEPT by the Milwaukee Brewers, getting outscored a ridiculous 13-2 in that three-game set! But wait, it gets worse. Their bats were basically silent, hitting a paltry .177 collectively, with just 17 hits in 96 at-bats against the Brewers. And get this: they went a soul-crushing 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position! ZERO FOR SEVENTEEN! That losing skid tied a season high at four games for them. Manager Oliver Marmol is trying to keep a poker face, saying, "What happens, I have no idea, but I can tell you what won't happen. We won't have guys going out there sulking and giving away games. They're not going to let Wednesday's 2-1 loss affect them and they're going to give you their best shot. Whether it's good enough or not, we don't know. But it's not going to be because we didn't give our best shot." Talk about a tough spot, huh? At least Jordan Walker is trying, with two hits and their lone run in that 2-1 loss, and he's 8-for-24 with two homers, eight RBIs, and four runs in his last six games.

Pitching Woes and Surging Rivals

Now, let's talk about the pitching matchup for their upcoming game against the Chicago Cubs on Friday. The Cardinals are sending out right-hander Andre Pallante, who's sitting at 5-4 with a 3.76 ERA. He actually looked good in his last outing, holding Cincinnati to just one run on two hits with three strikeouts over six innings in an 8-1 road win. But get this for a quirky trend: he's 4-4 over his last eight starts, literally alternating wins and losses! If that pattern holds, Friday might not be his day. Plus, his career against the Cubs isn't pretty: 0-4 with a 4.40 ERA in 12 games, five of them starts. He'll have to watch out for Ian Happ, who's seeing the ball like a beach ball right now, hitting a two-run homer among three hits in Chicago's 7-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Thursday. Happ's numbers are crazy good lately: 5-for-11 with two homers and seven RBIs in his last two games. The Cubs, by the way, have won both of those games, suddenly picking up steam after losing a season-high 10 games in a row. For Chicago, left-hander Shota Imanaga (4-5, 4.04 ERA) is on the bump, looking to snap his own three-game skid. He's been getting hammered, giving up 15 runs on 16 hits, including five homers, in just 10 1/3 innings over his last two outings. After giving up three dingers in an 8-5 loss to the Astros, Imanaga admitted his splitter "felt like the splitters that were trying to go down below the zone were left up in the zone." He knows he needs to fix it. Still, he's got a decent track record against the Cards, going 2-1 with a 2.84 ERA in four career starts. So, Friday's game in St. Louis is shaping up to be a real battle of who can break their bad habits first. Can the Cardinals finally get some runs with guys in scoring position, or will the surging Cubs keep their momentum rolling? Either way, it's gonna be a must-watch for anyone who loves some baseball drama. Meanwhile, let's keep that Emerald City energy going for our Mariners! What a win, huh?

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