ST. LOUIS – The Cardinals have largely defied expectations early in this rebuilding season by thriving in the tense moments of close games. They came into Friday 5-0 in extra-innings games, 11-2 in outcomes decided by two runs or fewer and as the owners of nine come-from-behind victories.

The problem with living so dangerously, of course, is the fickle nature of baseball and how a large sample size of close games usually tend to level out in terms of wins and losses.

The Cardinals felt the stinging frustration of a close game on Friday when Seattle’s Josh Naylor hit a tiebreaking, solo homer in the sixth inning and St. Louis saw a promising rally fizzle in the eighth of a 3-2 defeat to the Mariners at Busch Stadium.

Andre Pallante was the tough-luck loser despite giving up just four hits and striking out eight – one shy of his career-best nine set in 2024 against the Pirates. Pallante, who surrendered the Naylor homer on a low-and-in fastball. allowed three earned runs and three walks in 5 1/3 innings of work.

“It’s exactly where I want to throw the pitch, but maybe I went to the well too many times because I threw him a fastball in there the pitch before,” said Pallante, who had his 0-1 pitch hit418 feet by Naylor. “But, you know, I’m not perfect. I executed my approach on that pitch, and I’ve just got to live with it.”

Cardinals’ manager Oliver Marmol came into the series eager to see how his lineup would match up with Friday’s winner, George Kirby (2.97 ERA), Bryan Woo (2.25 ERA) and Emerson Hancock (2.83 ERA). The Cards outhit the Mariners 8-4, but couldn’t tie the game in the eighth despite JJ Wetherholt and Ivan Herrera opening the inning with singles.

“I actually thought we did a lot of things well even though we’re going up against a staff that does a nice job and they’ve shown that over time,” Marmol said. “We had one of those game where we hit some balls hard right at people and it just didn’t go our way. … I thought it was a really well-played game on both sides.”

Down 2-0 following RBI singles by Seattle’s Cole Young and Dominic Canzone, the Cards looked poised to pull off another come-from-behind victory when Masyn Winn hit a 1-2 pitch off the plate over second base to plate Jordan Walker and Nolan Gorman and tie the game.

Winn, who broke out of a slow start to the season with a strong series in his hometown of Houston, remained the Cardinals hottest hitter of late. He came into Friday hitting .387 with five extra-base hits and eight RBI in his previous eight games. Not only did he extend his hitting streak to nine games, but he authored his fourth multi-hit performance in the past six games.

“He was able to cash it in and he stayed on it enough to get it over the second baseman’s head,” Marmol said of Winn’s opposite-field single in the fourth. “That has to be part of his game and I know it’s something he’s working on. As he continues to get at bats, when he talks about what he’s trying to do, (going the other way) needs to be a real part of his weapons – being able to shoot the ball through that hole.”

One of MLB’s best ground-ball pitchers for years, Pallante got just four ground ball outs on Friday while striking out eight. That spoke to the hard breaking bite on his slider on Friday night. Other than going low-and-in two pitches in a row to Naylor, Pallante was pleased with his effort.

“I always want to leave the game with the lead and I wish I hadn’t given up that last homer, and kept us in the game longer,” Pallante said. “But I gave us a chance to win even though I don’t think I had my best stuff. I had trouble landing my curveball and my changeup wasn’t there, but the slider underneath the zone was really good.”

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