Flexen falters in Sunday start, Mariners can’t complete sweep of Cardinals
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – The Seattle Mariners ended their nine-game homestand against three different interleague opponents with a loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, failing to complete a sweep against the National League Central opponent. Mariners starting pitcher Chris Flexen stumbled throughout his start in place of injured starter Robbie Ray, and the Seattle bats remained inconsistent as they had a big second inning but nothing else the rest of the way. Seattle stays under the .500 mark of the season, as they will now head out on a nine-game road trip that sees them battle two tough opponents before heading down to Oakland before a return home.
St. Louis Cardinals starter Jack Flaherty overcame a rough second inning and outdueled Mariners starter Chris Flexen (Photos by Elisabeth Adams)
Flexen falls on his face in third consecutive outing
Mariners starting pitcher Chris Flexen has largely been effective and consistent in his outings for the Mariners over the past three years, but since slotting back into the starting rotation due to Robbie Ray’s injury, he’s struggled heavily. With Ray down and the Seattle bullpen dealing with some injuries, the Mariners were hoping that Flexen was going to find some of his 2021 form where he came on as a solidly surprising starter for the team. He hasn’t done that, and the team had to dip into the bullpen heavily since Flexen only went four innings. Considering that he’s already at somewhat of a disadvantage with lower velocity, Flexen thrives on getting his stuff to work and doing so with location. The Cardinals lineup, while mostly struggling so far this season, still has plenty of talent and was able to get loud hard contact off of the Mariners starter and chase him early, dropping his record to 0-4 and pushing his ERA up to 8.86.
The Seattle Mariners offense had a good second inning, but was otherwise silent this game (Photos by Elisabeth Adams)
Answering back
As they have numerous times throughout the year, the Mariners found a response to their opponent's early lead. Seattle was able to pick up the phone and have answer time in the second inning, all started by Jarred Kelenic’s solo homer with one out. AJ Pollock followed up Kelenic’s big last with a sad fly out, and it seemed like all Seattle was going to get was one run. Former Cardinal Kolten Wong, who continues to try and work out of an early season slump, singled to get things going once again. The Mariners found a hum, as JP Crawford doubled and Julio walked, setting up sweet-hitting first baseman Ty France to single and drive in two runs. Eugenio Suarez drew a walk to seemingly keep things going, and it seemed that Seattle was truly getting things going offensively, but Cal Raleigh’s strikeout ended the burst.
Seattle Mariners left fielder Jarred Kelenic’s game through pictures, including with the home run trident and swelmet (Photos by Elisabeth Adams)
Kelenic creates more history
Let’s take a further look into that homer by Jarred Kelenic, as the young outfielder continues to show improvement and display the power that had so many salivating over what could be, and what’s happening right now. His homer on a pitch on the inside of the plate to the opposite field isn’t something many have done very often, and now Jarred has been able to do so twice in this young 2023 season. The young outfielder out of Waukesha, Wisconsin continues to show improved play across the board, whether that be in actual hitting, patience at the plate, or more. While plenty of eyes remain on teammate Julio Rodriguez in the outfield, and for good reason of course, Kelenic has been one of the most valuable players to this Seattle team in GENERAL, not just the outfield. Maintaining that over the course of the regular season will be huge towards how far this Mariners team goes.
Quick notes
After securing a series win yesterday, the Mariners lost today’s game against the Cardinals 7-3. They move to 10-12 on the season.
Jarred Kelenic picked up the Mariners first run of the game with a solo shot. He has now hit a home run in back-to-back games and leads the team with 6.
In the past 14 games, Kelenic is batting .360 (18x50) with 4 doubles, 6 home runs, 13 RBI and 6 walks. Since the start of the season, he has reached safely in 18 of the 20 games he has appeared in.
Ty France went 1-for-3 with 2 RBI in today’s game.
He recorded his 15th RBI of the season after his single in the 2nd inning and is now tied for 1st on the team in RBI (also: Eugenio Suárez).
Following his hit by pitch in the 1st inning, Ty France now has 54 hit-by-pitches in a Mariners uniform, moving into 4th place in Mariners history by breaking a tie with Jay Buhner.
France trails only Edgar Martinez (89 HBP), Kyle Seager (63) and Dave Valle (60).
Eugenio Suárez extended his on-base streak to 19 consecutive games (4/2-c) after a walk in the 2nd inning, tying his career high (last: 9/8/19 – 7/24/20 w/ CIN).
J.P Crawford’s double in the 4th inning moved him into a tie for the 2nd most doubles on the team this season with 6 (also: Jarred Kelenic).
Crawford has reached base safely in 10 of the last 11 games (4/12-c) and is batting .320 (8x25) with 8 runs, 2 doubles and 10 walks.
Kolten Wong went 3-for-4 in today’s game, his 2nd multi-hit game of the season so far (last: 4/10/23 @ CHC).
In the 2022 season, he had 5 games with 3 or more hits.
Julio Rodríguez walked twice in today’s game. It was the second time in the 2023 season he has collected a pair of walks in a game so far (last: 4/3/23 vs. LAA).
Cal Raleigh caught 2 baserunners stealing in today’s game. It is his first game of the 2023 season with multiple caught stealing.
Last season, Raleigh had 3 games with multiple caught stealing (last: 8/9/22 vs. NYY) and ranked 2nd in the Major Leagues in caught stealing with 25, trailing only Philadelphia’s J.T. Realmuto with 30.
The Mariners bullpen combined for 5.0 innings in today’s game and allowed only 1 run.
Penn Murfee tossed 1.0 inning and gave up 1 hit, 1 walk and struck out 1 batter.
Gabe Speier 1.0 innings and allowed 2 hits. He has not given up a run this season.
Diego Castillo went 2.0 innings and gave up 1 run (1 ER), 1 home run and 3 strike outs.
Tayler Saucedo made his 2nd appearance this year in today’s game and pitched 1.0 inning, walked 1 and struck out 1.
Chris Flexen threw 4.0 innings in his start today and allowed 9 hits, 6 runs (6 ER), 3 walks, 3 strikeouts and 2 home runs…he threw 84 pitches (52 strikes).
What’s next?
Following this nine-game homestand, our Mariners now head out onto the road for a nine-game trip out East to battle some tough teams. Seattle will begin the road trip against the Phillies for a rare visit to Philadelphia, a team that’s battling through the early season and injuries just like the Mariners are. Last season when the two teams met, before they ended their respective playoff droughts, the Phillies took two of three games in Seattle in the month of May. After the three games in Philadelphia, the Mariners head to Toronto for three and Oakland for three before returning to T-Mobile Park.