SEATTLE _ There was a moment six or seven pitches into his final at-bat of the game that Cardinals leadoff hitter Tommy Edman elevated a pitch toward the right-field foul pole and appeared to have done his game-winning homer from Wednesday one better.
The bases were loaded. The Cardinals were down by a run, and the rookie that had delivered the win Wednesday with a homer had hit a fly ball with the bases loaded. The ball drifted, drifted, drifted just foul.
His at-bat continued.
Edman fouled off another pitch, and forced the Mariners' reliever to throw a ninth pitch of the at-bat. The rookie, batting left-handed, drilled that third pitch for a groundball single that didn't do as much damage as a grand slam or even his homer from the night before. Didn't need to.
For the second time in as many games, Edman brought home the go-ahead run that carried the Cardinals to a 5-4 victory Thursday and a series against the Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
Edman's single scored Dexter Fowler from third to tie the game at 4, and Harrison Bader sped around third to beat the throw home for the eventual winning run. Including his three-run, pinch-hit homer Wednesday, Edman delivered five of the Cardinals previous eight runs.
The other three Thursday came on a solo homer by Matt Wieters and a two-run shot by Fowler that momentarily tied the game at 3.
The Mariners would reclaim the lead as Mariners do with the home run. Tim Beckham leadoff shot in the bottom of the fourth inning put the M's ahead and effectively ended starter Michael Wacha's outing. A walk to the No. 8 assured it, and Wacha was gone after allowing four runs on six hits and two walks. He did not strike out a batter in his final start before the All-Star break. The Mariners threatened in every inning they had against Wacha.
A home run in the first inning pushed them to an early lead. A series of hits to open the third inning led to a two-run rally that pushed Seattle ahead again to a 3-1 lead. And then the Beckham homer.
Daniel Ponce de Leon was the first Cardinal reliever into the breach, and he retired the first four batters he faced. With the help of two double plays, Ponce de Leon got more outs (eight) than batters faced (seven). John Gant handled the seventh but had to leave the eighth after taking a hard groundball off his right calf muscle.
Andrew Miller struck out two with the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at second base in the eighth inning.
Carlos Martinez pitched the ninth for the save, his third of the season.
The Cardinals head to San Francisco for a three-game weekend series before the All-Star break.
