After blasting a combined 10 home runs and scoring 28 runs in their previous two games, it would have been impossible for the Mariners to replicate that sort of production on Monday night

So when they had failed to score a single run against St. Louis Cardinals middling starter Miles Mikolas over the first five innings, which included squandering leadoff doubles to start the fourth and fifth, it seemed like the Mariners might be destined for another disappointing defeat.

It would be one of those unfathomable frustrating losses that leaves fans seething while managers and players scratch their head and say, “That’s baseball” for what happened.

But the Mariners’, dare we say, “Mojo” at T-Mobile Park, and their overall talent wouldn’t let them lose on a cool Monday evening.

Down by two run going into the bottom of the sixth, Seattle put the first two runners on base, ending Mikolas’ outing. They later scored four runs off his replacement, right-hander Gordon Graceffo, to rally for a 4-2 victory over the Cardinals.

“A really good way to start the homestand tonight,” said manager Dan Wilson. “Being able to score four runs tonight without a home run is big. That was a good ball game from from start to finish.”

The Mariners have won three straight games to improve to 76-68. With the Astros off Monday, Seattle moved to two games back in the American League West standings. The Mariners remained 1.5 games ahead of the Rangers (75-70) and 2.5 games ahead of the Guardians (73-70).

Bryan Woo gave the Mariners a quality start, pitching six innings while allowing two runs on three hits with no walks and nine strikeouts to improve to 13-7 on the season.

The nine strikeouts tied a career high. Perhaps more impressive was that Woo didn’t rely completely on his fastball and was able to overcome several counts where he fell behind. He threw first-pitch strikes to only 10 of the 21 batters he faced and five three-ball counts.

“I’m gonna be tough on myself no matter what,” Woo said. “I try to be better about that, but it’s more just like you hold yourself to a high standard, and there’s certain things that you get mad about, and certain things that you know you could do better on. Like tonight, I was awful getting ahead on first pitch and stuff like that.”

The two runs allowed came in the fourth inning. After retiring the first nine batters he faced, Woo gave up a single to Ivan Herrera then looked stunned after Alec Burleson was able to keep his hands behind a 96-mph fastball on the lower inner quadrant of the plate. The result was a ball off the barrel that carried over the wall in center field for a two-run homer.

“With most lefties, it’s just the down and in pitch, if you don’t get it below the zone or above, a lot of guys love it there,” Woo said.

Meanwhile, the Mariners mustered minimal results against Mikolas. The veteran right-hander, who came into the game with a 7-10 record and 4.89 ERA, also retired the first nine hitters he faced.

Randy Arozarena led off the fourth with a double to notch the Mariners’ first hit. But the Mariners couldn’t score them, even after Julio Rodriguez picked up a one-out infield single.

Jorge Polanco led off the fifth inning with a double into the right-field corner. He made it as far as third as the next three Mariners hitters were retired in order.

For a team that ranks near the bottom of MLB in batting average with runners in scoring position, it wasn’t optimal execution.

“Offensively, we know we can strike and strike quickly,” Wilson said. “Throughout the ball game today, even though we weren’t scoring early, we knew we were going to be able to score.”

The Mariners broke it open in the sixth. Leo Rivas worked a nine-pitch walk off Mikolas after fouling off three 3-2 pitches. Arozarena followed with a sharp single up the middle to put the tying run on base. With Cal Raleigh coming to the plate, Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol called on Graceffo to try and solve the looming situation.

He did not.

Graceffo walked Raleigh on four pitches to load the bases. Julio Rodriguez smashed a slider through the left side to score Rivas for the Mariners’ first run.

Josh Naylor ambushed a first-pitch breaking ball from Graceffo, sending a line drive into the gap in right-center. It easily scored Arozarena and Raleigh. Rodriguez ran through a late stop sign from third base coach Kristopher Negron and was out by 10 steps at the plate. The Mariners asked for a replay review to see if catcher Jimmy Crooks had impeded his path to the plate.

“It looked like (Crooks) had started to give (Rodriguez) space and then kind of put that left foot in front of home plate before he had the ball,” Wilson said. “And that’s kind of what we were looking at and but obviously, with the rule and the review back in New York, not much you can argue there.”

But the ever-aware Naylor picked up his teammate’s baserunning mistake. With the Cardinals paying minimal attention to him at second, Naylor swiped third base with ease with Polanco at the plate. So when Polanco lifted a deep fly ball to right field, Naylor was able to tag up and race home for a big insurance run.

“He’s just a smart player and we’ve talked about how he’s able to find little advantages that he can get and and then he takes advantage of them,” Wilson said. “He was able to get a good lead and he got a little bit of a jump. They kind of stopped it, but then didn’t react to it too much, and he just took advantage of that and kept going. It’s just such a headsy play.”

With a two-run lead and his leverage arms rested, Wilson turned it over to his bullpen. Matt Brash worked a 1-2-3 seventh, Eduard Bazardo followed with the same efficient inning. Andres Muñoz issued a one-out walk, but came back to strike out Burleson and Nolan Gorman to end the game and notch his 33rd save.

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