Crawford, Beckham HRs not enough in loss

SEATTLE -- There was no shortage of fireworks at T-Mobile Park on Thursday, with the Mariners and Cardinals combining for four home runs and St. Louis manager Mike Shildt getting ejected for arguing a timeout that wasn’t called.

But in the end, the Fourth of July ended quietly for the hometown Mariners as they dropped a 5-4 decision that continued their first-half freefall heading toward next week’s All-Star break.

• Box score

Despite ranking second in the Majors with 155 home runs, the Mariners have gone 25-51 since their 13-2 start and are 1-6 over the past week.

The Mariners’ home run prowess has been offset by the fact their pitching staff has yielded 149 long balls as well, which is the second-most in MLB.

Shortstop J.P. Crawford and third baseman Tim Beckham homered for Seattle in the afternoon game, both solo shots off St. Louis starter Michael Wacha.

The Cardinals countered with a solo blast by Matt Wieters and a two-run poke by Dexter Fowler off Mariners lefty Tommy Milone, though it was a two-run single by Tommy Edman off reliever Matt Festa in the seventh that finally pushed the visitors into the lead for good.

Milone remembers coming to Seattle when he was with the A’s from 2012-14 and T-Mobile Park was clearly a pitcher’s park. Those days have changed, with the ball flying everywhere these days.

“You see more home runs, so it’s definitely carrying more,” Milone said. “But I feel like I’ve done an OK job keeping the ball in the park, so I’ll just try to keep that up.”

The 32-year-old lefty had allowed just six homers in his first eight appearances for the Mariners, but Wieters reached down and drove a 2-2 changeup out to left in the third, and Fowler drove an elevated 1-2 fastball out to the same area in the fourth.

“To be honest, I didn’t think those were terrible pitches,” Milone said. “The one to Wieters, he had caught me last year a couple times. And based on what I was seeing at the beginning of the at-bat, he wasn’t offering at any of the fastballs. I didn’t think it was a bad changeup. It was down and away, but I think he was sitting on it.

“The one to Fowler was an OK pitch. It was up, which based on the reports is a good, safe place to go. It was a spot I was trying to hit, so that’s definitely frustrating.”

Shildt got tossed in the fourth after Yairo Munoz tried to call timeout and stepped out of the box. Instead, Munoz took a called strike down the middle from Milone. But Shildt’s team rallied from behind for its second straight win and climbed back above .500, at 43-42, with the series victory.

The opening act plays on

Rookie right-hander Matt Carasiti threw a scoreless first, marking the third time he’s put up a zero in four outings as the opener. The Mariners are 4-6 in games where they’ve used the opener for Wade LeBlanc and Milone.

Carasiti appears to be the solution to the team’s search for the right arm for the situation, as he’s put up a 1.80 ERA in five outings since signing as a Minor League free agent and then being promoted from Triple-A Tacoma last month.

“I’ll pitch whenever they tell me to, but it’s pretty cool to have almost like a set role, even if it’s a little strange that it’s the first inning,” said Carasiti, who appeared in 19 games in relief for the Rockies in ‘16 and spent last year competing in Japan. “Obviously, the game is changing. But I don’t really look at it as a start, I look at it almost like I’m coming in for the seventh inning, and it’s worked so far.”

The opener idea got off to a rough start for Seattle, and the club still has a 12.60 ERA in the 10 times it’s employed the strategy. But while Milone allowed five runs on seven hits over 5 1/3 innings to the Cardinals, he and LeBlanc have combined for a 3.26 ERA in 60 2/3 innings as the bulk-innings pitchers in those 10 games.

Carasiti was hitting 95 mph with his heater in the first, while right-hander Dan Altavilla touched 99 mph with a 1-2-3 ninth with a strikeout, as he continues throwing much better his last few outings since being recalled from Double-A Arkansas.

“Carasiti has a good arm and Altavilla had another really nice outing,” Servais said. “We’ll continue to build those guys’ confidence. We’re going to need them, there’s no doubt about that.”