Mariners club 5 home runs to complete sweep against Detroit Tigers

DETROIT – Julio Rodríguez got it started. Jorge Polanco and Cole Young provided the final blows with a whole bunch of Randy Arozarena and one big swing from Mitch Garver in between.

The Mariners could not have asked for a better way to head into the All-Star break, even if their Sunday morning started in the middle of the night when a small fire and fire alarm at the team hotel forced everyone out of their rooms.

“You can’t say enough about this group. Today started at 4:30am and finished just now, and they fought the whole time,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said. “Just an unbelievable day.”

The Mariners clubbed five solo homers Sunday on their way to an 8-4 win over the Tigers and a three-game sweep of the best team in baseball before 34,671 at Comerica Park.

What looked to potentially be a disastrous road trip going into the break after getting swept in New York now has a completely different lens after the three days in the Motor City. The M’s handed the best team in baseball so far this season just their second sweep and first at home. The only other time the Tigers were swept this season came in the opening three games of the year back in late March at Dodger Stadium.

It was three hot and humid days where the Mariners showed that despite their flaws, they are capable of playing with the best in the league. The M’s are 51-45 at the All-Star break and are 18-11 over the past 29 games since getting swept in Arizona.

“We have what it takes. That’s the team with the best record in the AL, and I feel like we had a very tough series in New York but we washed it off, we throw it down the drain and we showed up. We showed up every day and we were able to compete and come out with the (win). It was hot out there. It was humid. We had some delays and everything, but we showed up, we prepared and do the best that we could.”

About the only thing that didn’t go the Mariners way on Sunday besides getting more sleep was seeing Cal Raleigh match Barry Bonds for the most home runs in baseball history before the break. Raleigh had to settle for 38, the second-most all-time.

In pulling of the sweep, the M’s showed the slugging from their offense that needs to carry into the second half. They hit 11 home runs and had 40 total hits over the three games. The 35 runs scored were the most by the M’s in a three-game series since 2002 at Kansas City.

No one in baseball has been hotter at hitting the long ball over the past two weeks than Arozarena, who homered for the ninth time in the past 13 games with a solo shot off Detroit starter Jack Flaherty on the first pitch of the fourth inning.

Arozarena had an ugly strikeout with the bases loaded and nobody out in the first inning. The homer was a first step in countering the strikeout and he later added an RBI double in the eighth inning to pull the Mariners even at 4-4.

Garver’s homer broke the 2-2 tie leading off the seventh inning and came off Tyler Holton, who allowed one of Raleigh’s two homers on Friday night. And the combo of Polanco and Young provided the winning swings in the ninth going back-to-back with solo shots off Detroit’s Tommy Kahnle.

Polanco’s was his 15th of the season; Young’s was the second of his career.

“Just a great job on both those guys parts,” Wilson said. “He can be really tough on lefties with that changeup. But our guys were locked in, and again, these guys were not to be denied today.”

But the biggest story was the monster weekend from Rodríguez. He had six hits, three home runs, two doubles, scored eight runs, stole two bases and walked four times.

Rodríguez’s homer in the third inning was his 14th of the season and went to the opposite field. He laid off a two-strike fastball that was off the plate and when Flaherty tried to come back with the same pitch, Rodríguez drove it into the right field seats. Only one of his previous 14 homers this season was hit to right field and that came back on April 4 in San Francisco off Justin Verlander.

Last year, Rodríguez homered four times to right, but during the 2023 season he lived by driving the ball the other way with nine of his 32 homers that season being hit to right field, per MLB Statcast data.

It marked the second time in his career homering in three straight games, the only other time coming from Aug. 26-28, 2023.

“I feel like I was just on time. I was just on time and I was looking for my pitches, staying within myself in my at-bats,” Rodríguez said.

Logan Gilbert pitched into the sixth as the Mariners got another strong performance from their starter in the series.

Gilbert’s start began a little like his interrupted outing last Tuesday in New York ended. That night in the Bronx, Gilbert was nearly unhittable before a rain delay and struggled following the brief break.

This time, Gilbert struggled at the start and then kept the Tigers scoreless into the sixth. Detroit scored twice in the first inning, although the inning was helped by Luke Raley’s throwing error at first base as he couldn’t connect with Gilbert coming over to cover. Gilbert walked Spencer Torkelson with two outs and Dillon Dingler clanked a two-run double off the wall in left.

From there, Gilbert was excellent. He allowed five hits the rest of the way and was helped out by Rodríguez throwing out Gleyber Torres trying to go from first to third on Riley Greene’s single in the third inning. Gilbert was pulled after giving up a one-out walk in the sixth, but struck out nine and was not charged with an earned run.

“He gave up a couple there in the first but then really shut the door after that. He really settled in and pitched really well,” Wilson said.

Gabe Speier had a troublesome seventh inning as Greene’s homer gave Detroit a 4-3 lead, but the M’s rallied to let the lefty off the hook.

Now it’s time for a break. A foursome of players were headed to Atlanta for the All-Star festivities the next few days. Others were headed on mini-vacations. Others were headed home.

It’ll be another sprint coming out of the break. The M’s play 17 games in 17 days to start the second half, beginning with the first-place Astros next Friday.

“One heck of a series. One heck of a way to cap off the series. One heck of a way to cap off the first half,” Wilson said.