Dan Wilson sounded like every Mariners fan after Leo Rivas walk-off stunner

The win the Seattle Mariners pulled off over the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday was so wild, so ridiculous, so exhausting, and ended by such an unlikely hero that it's no wonder Dan Wilson went right past awestruck and landed on dumbstruck.

“What a game,” Seattle's second-year skipper told the media, including Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. “So many — I'm not even going to try — there were just so many individual performances that were unbelievable tonight.”

If the nodding of tens of thousands of heads makes a sound, you just heard it coming from the Pacific Northwest. There is just no other way to talk about a 13-inning 4-2 win that saw an endless run of twists and turns finally finish when Leo Rivas won it with only his second home run of the season.

That's now five wins in a row for the Mariners, and 78 in 146 games on the season. And while they're all must-win games, this one really fits the bill. Had the Mariners gone down in defeat, they would have lost ground to the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers in the AL West and wild card races.

Leo Rivas was one hero among many in the Mariners' most unlikely win of the year

If we're being honest, this is a game the Mariners probably deserved to lose.

True, Seattle pitchers only issued one walk. And true, the Mariners offense out-hit the Cardinals offense 9-8. Yet the Cardinals ended up taking 22 turns at-bat with runners in scoring position, tied for the seventh-most RISP at-bats that any team has gotten in any game this season.

That the Cardinals only collected two hits in those spots is one of those blessings from the baseball gods that you don't expect, but are happy to get. Yet even if Iván Herrera did Seattle a favor with brain-gassy baserunning in the 10th inning, the Mariners are not to be denied what they did to keep runs off the board.

Above all, this was a master class in relief pitching. Wilson called on six different pitchers after Logan Gilbert ran up his pitch count through 4.2 difficult innings, and they delivered 8.1 scoreless innings with only three hits allowed. And this was without Andrés Muñoz, Matt Brash, and Eduard Bazardo, who had each pitched in the first two games of the series.

The defense, meanwhile, was on point. J.P. Crawford helped out Jose Castillo with a slick play up the middle in the ninth, and Eugenio Suárez got dirty to end the 10th inning and prevent the Cardinals from stretching a 2-1 lead to 3-1.

The Mariners only went 3-for-15 with runners in scoring position in their own right, which is another reason why they probably should have taken the L. But they made two of those hits count in the biggest way, as Jorge Polanco tied the game with his RBI double in the 11th before Rivas walked it off in the 13th.

"Leo Rivas! What have you done?!" was Aaron Goldsmith's call on Rivas' game-winner, and to call that perfect would be underselling it.

Everyone in the building expected Rivas to bunt Josh Naylor over to get the winning run at third with one out. To put it in the seats instead was a flatly ridiculous outcome. If there's a lesson in it for the Mariners, it's that maybe the guy who had a .471 OBP and 10 homers at Triple-A this season deserves their confidence.

When Rivas' ball landed in the right field bleachers at T-Mobile Park, the Mariners kept their deficit to the Astros at 1.0 games and their advantage over the Rangers at 1.5 games. More importantly, they treated those who stuck around to easily the most unlikely of the 44 wins they've had at home all year.

Perhaps Wilson should have had more to say about it, but sometimes a moment is too powerful for words.