Mariners’ Julio Rodríguez homers twice, Cal Raleigh clubs No. 44 in win over Rays
The grass surrounding the mound was littered with Mariners icons before a single pitch was thrown. The players that go by a singular word or nickname. Junior. Felix. The Big Unit. Bone. Edgar.
And when they were all finished feting another one-name icon as part of the number retirement for Ichiro, the two players on the current roster most likely to some day join that pantheon of Mariners excellence added to what was already a memorable August night at T-Mobile Park.
Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez may someday find themselves sitting in that same half circle around the mound as someone else is honored. Or maybe it’s one of them. So it seemed fitting on this night they’d be the ones to take the spotlight on the field.
Julio Rodríguez homered in his first two plate appearances, and Cal Raleigh added to his major league lead with his 44th homer, lifting the Mariners to a 7-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday night before an enthused sellout crowd of 45,249.
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The M’s improved to 8-1 on their 10-game homestand with the chance at a second straight sweep in Sunday’s finale versus the Rays. They won their sixth straight to match a season-high and most important continued to trim the deficit behind Houston in the AL West.
The M’s will enter Sunday a half-game back of the Astros and with some help from the Yankees could leave town for a nine-game road trip in first place by Sunday night.
After watching Ichiro’s number retirement from the top step of the dugout wearing a big smile, Rodríguez set the tone immediately. He took Tampa Bay’s hard-throwing righty Joe Boyle out to center field with a 436-foot, two-run shot just three batters into the bottom of the first inning, turning around a 99.3 mph fastball that was left middle of the plate.
Raleigh did almost the same two innings later.
A day after hitting a game-winning three-run homer in the eighth inning, Raleigh followed up with another three-run shot, this time into the Mariners bullpen in left field and caught in the hat of bullpen catcher Fleming Báez. His 44th homer of this magical season came on a 99.6 mph fastball from Boyle, the fastest pitch Raleigh has homered off in his career.
Raleigh barely had a chance to hold the M’s home run trident and hadn’t made it to the other end of the dugout in celebration before Rodríguez was rounding the bases for a second time. The line drive had a hang time of three seconds and reached an apex of just 39 feet, but after being blistered at 113.4 mph exit velocity didn’t need much height to clear the left field fence.
It was the second multi-homer game of the season for Rodríguez and sixth in his career.
Since July 11 when Rodríguez started a three-day home run barrage in Detroit, no player in baseball has hit more homers. Only Philadelphia’s Kyle Schwarber has matched Rodríguez with 12 home runs during that span as the long-awaited summer heat wave from the M’s center fielder seems to have arrived.
In the 25 games during that span, Rodríguez has a slash line of .286/.330/.667/.997. While his overall batting average for the season has only climbed slightly during the stretch, his OPS is up more than 60 points.
Cole Young scored on a wild pitch in the sixth after some excellent baserunning, going from first to third on Randy Arozarena’s flare to center field that dropped, and the M’s had productive work at the plate from much of the lineup.
Young walked four times. J.P. Crawford had a 17-pitch plate appearance that ended in a soft line out but matched the longest plate appearance in M’s history dating to 1988. Josh Naylor doubled twice in his return to the lineup after sitting one day due to a sore shoulder.
Considering the noise made at the plate, Logan Evans was on the verge of producing one of his better performances since rejoining the rotation in mid-June before Junior Caminero struck in the sixth inning.
Evans was lifted with one out in the sixth after walking Yandy Diaz and giving up a single to Josh Lowe. Caleb Ferguson was brought on to face the young Rays slugger and was ahead in the count 0-2.
An elevated fastball middle of the plate was not where Ferguson wanted his 0-2 pitch and Caminero deposited it 419 feet to center field for his 32nd homer.
The home run put a damper on Evans’ final stat line as he was tagged for three earned runs, walked three and struck out four. But outside of Brandon Lowe’s solo homer in the first inning, Evans did what the M’s needed, pitching into the sixth.