Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez homers twice, Cal Raleigh golf equipment No. 44 in win over Rays
The grass surrounding the mound was suffering from Mariners icons earlier than a single pitch was thrown. The gamers that go by a singular phrase or nickname. Junior. Felix. The Huge Unit. Bone. Edgar.
And once they have been all completed feting one other one-name icon as a part of the quantity retirement for Ichiro, the 2 gamers on the present roster almost certainly to sometime be a part of that pantheon of Mariners excellence added to what was already a memorable August night time at T-Cellular Park.
Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez could sometime discover themselves sitting in that very same half circle across the mound as another person is honored. Or possibly it’s one in all them. So it appeared becoming on this night time they’d be those to take the highlight on the sphere.
Rodríguez homered in his first two plate appearances and Raleigh added to his major-league lead together with his 44th homer lifting the Mariners to a 7-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night time earlier than an enthused sellout crowd of 45,249.
“It was excellent. Positively earlier than the sport in my head I used to be like ‘we acquired to get this (win) for Ichi,’” Rodríguez stated. “It was a really particular night time. We undoubtedly acquired to exit with a bang and to have the ability to go like that, the vitality at first of the sport was unmatched. Cal’s residence run, too. It was undoubtedly an superior night time.”
The M’s improved to 8-1 on their 10-game homestand with the possibility at a second straight sweep in Sunday’s finale versus the Rays. They received their sixth straight to match a season-high and most necessary continued to trim the deficit behind Houston within the AL West.
The M’s will enter Sunday a half-game again of the Astros and with some assist from the Yankees might depart city for a nine-game street journey in first place by Sunday night time.
“It simply exhibits the standard of our staff, that we are able to beat you in many alternative methods and now we have the means to simply get it completed,” Rodríguez stated. “On the finish of the day, that’s all that issues.”
After watching Ichiro’s quantity retirement from the highest step of the dugout carrying an enormous smile, Rodríguez set the tone instantly. He took Tampa Bay’s hard-throwing righty Joe Boyle out to middle subject with a 436-foot, two-run shot simply three batters into the underside of the primary inning, turning round a 99.3-mph fastball that was left in the midst of the plate.
Raleigh did nearly the identical two innings later.
A day after hitting a game-winning three-run homer within the eighth inning, Raleigh adopted up with one other three-run shot, this time into the Mariners bullpen in left subject and caught within the hat of bullpen catcher Fleming Báez. His 44th homer of this magical season got here on a 99.6-mph fastball from Boyle, the quickest pitch Raleigh has homered off in his profession.
“That’s simply actually good hitting when you’ll be able to drive a ball the opposite method like that,” M’s supervisor Dan Wilson stated. “You bought to do numerous issues proper together with your swing, and it was only a nice AB, an awesome swing and an awesome outcome for us.”
Raleigh barely had an opportunity to carry the M’s residence run trident and hadn’t made it to the opposite finish of the dugout in celebration earlier than Rodríguez was rounding the bases for a second time. The road drive had a dangle time of three seconds and reached an apex of simply 39 ft, however after being blistered at 113.4 mph exit velocity didn’t want a lot peak to clear the left-field fence.
It was the second multi-homer sport of the season for Rodríguez and sixth in his profession.
Since July 11 when Rodríguez began a three-day residence run barrage in Detroit, no participant in baseball has hit extra homers. Solely Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber has matched Rodríguez with 12 residence runs throughout that span because the long-awaited summer time warmth wave from the M’s middle fielder appears to have arrived.
Within the 25 video games throughout that span, Rodríguez has a slash line of .286/.330/.667/.997. Whereas his general batting common for the season has solely climbed barely throughout the stretch, his OPS is up greater than 60 factors.
“When he finds the barrel it’s a rocket someplace,” Wilson stated.
Cole Younger scored on a wild pitch within the sixth after some wonderful baserunning going from first to 3rd on Randy Arozarena’s flare to middle subject that dropped, and the M’s had productive work on the plate from a lot of the lineup.
Younger walked 4 occasions. J.P. Crawford had a 17-pitch plate look that resulted in a mushy lineout however matched the longest plate look in M’s historical past relationship to 1988. Josh Naylor doubled twice in his return to the lineup after sitting in the future because of a sore shoulder.
Contemplating the noise made on the plate, Logan Evans was on the verge of manufacturing one in all his higher performances since rejoining the rotation in mid-June earlier than Junior Caminero struck within the sixth inning.
Evans was lifted with one out within the sixth after strolling Yandy Diaz and giving up a single to Josh Lowe. Caleb Ferguson was introduced on to face the younger Rays slugger and was forward within the rely 0-2.
An elevated fastball center of the plate was not the place Ferguson needed his 0-2 pitch and Caminero deposited it 419 ft to middle subject for his 32nd homer.
The house run put a damper on Evans’ closing stat line as he was tagged for 3 earned runs, walked three and struck out 4. However exterior of Brandon Lowe’s solo homer within the first inning, Evans did what the M’s wanted, pitching into the sixth.
As Evans walked off the mound, he took a second to completely take within the setting the place he had the chance to pitch on this night time the place a franchise icon was honored earlier than a sellout crowd.
A fairly cool second for a rookie.
“It’s one of many coolest issues I’ve ever completed,” Evans stated. “I acquired to say congratulations to him previous to going out within the first inning, and he simply wished me luck. And I used to be like, ‘Wow, it’s Ichiro proper there and that is his night time.’ So needed to honor him and honor the entire group and metropolis.”
BOX SCORE