SEATTLE — Dae-Ho Lee drove in two runs and Leonys Martin had three hits to help Nathan Karns get his first win in almost a month as the Seattle Mariners beat the St. Louis Cardinals 5-4 on Saturday night.
Karns (6-2) gave up four runs and five hits in five innings for his first victory since May 30, and Steve Cishek got the last three outs for his 17th save of the season.
The Mariners loaded the bases against Mike Leake (5-5) in each of the first two innings. Robinson Cano and Nelson Cruz each singled with two outs in the first and Kyle Seager walked to load the bases. Lee delivered a grounder into right field to drive in Cano and Cruz. Adam Lind followed with a single to center to score Seager to make it 3-0.
In the second, a hard ground ball from Cruz got away from third baseman Jhonny Peralta to drive in a run. Seager’s potential double-play grounder was mishandled by Matt Carpenter as another run scored to make it 5-0.
Matt Holliday had an RBI single in the third and Almedys Diaz clubbed a three-run homer to left in the fifth to pull the Cardinals to 5-4.
Leake couldn’t get out of the fourth inning for St. Louis. He allowed five runs, four earned, on nine hits with two walks, a lone strikeout and a wild pitch in 3 1/3 innings.
After retiring the first eight batters of the night, Karns allowed a hit to Kolten Wong and walked Carpenter and Diaz to load the bases. Holliday singled to center to get the Cardinals on the board.
In the fifth, Karns hit Tommy Pham and allowed a single to Wong before Diaz’s homer.
Carpenter hit a one-out double off Cishek in the ninth inning, but Diaz and Holliday couldn’t bring him home to tie the game.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cardinals: 1B Matt Adams did not start but was expected to be available as a pinch-hitter if necessary Saturday night after being scratched from Friday’s game with lower back tightness.
Mariners: LHP Wade Miley is expected to come off the disabled list to start Wednesday’s game against Pittsburgh. He was placed on the DL due to a left shoulder impingement on June 17.
FAN INTERFERENCE
With runners on first and second and no outs in the top of the fifth, a fan jumped over the left field wall onto the field right as Carpenter hit a fly ball into left-center. The fan ran directly between Seth Smith and Leonys Martin as Smith glided across to make the catch. Pham advanced to third on the play as Smith’s throw went into second base. Security then tackled the fan just behind shortstop and escorted him out of the stadium.
CHANGING CLOSERS
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said they are going to move Trevor Rosenthal out of the closing role for the time being. Rosenthal did not record an out while allowing a double, walk and three-run home run in Friday’s 4-3 loss to the Mariners. Matheny said the Cardinals will use a combination of Jonathan Broxton, Seunghwan Oh and Kevin Siegrist in the ninth inning.
UP NEXT
Cardinals: RHP Jaime Garcia (5-6, 3.83 ERA) earned his fifth win last time out against the Chicago Cubs. Garcia allowed two runs and six hits over 6 2/3 innings with two walks and six strikeouts.
Mariners: LHP James Paxton (1-3, 3.34 ERA) will make his sixth start of the season after being called up to replace an injured Felix Hernandez in the rotation. Paxton took the loss in his last start vs. Detroit after allowing four runs on 11 hits over 7 2/3 innings with three walks and five strikeouts.
