Center fielder Julio Rodríguez set a major league record with his 17th hit in his last four games, helping to lead the Seattle Mariners past the defending champion Houston Astros 10-3 for their fifth consecutive victory Saturday night.
Rodriguez, with a single to left field in the seventh inning, broke a major league record set all the way back in 1925 by Milt Stock of the Brooklyn Robins. He finished a red hot 4-for-6, giving him his fourth-straight four-plus-hit game.
“Honestly, I knew when they put it on the scoreboard that I had set a record for a four-game span,” Rodriguez said. “Before that, I didn’t know.”
The four straight four-hit games tied Rodriguez with Stock for the longest such streak, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He is 17-for-21 (.810) during the four-game stretch, improving his season batting average by 22 points, from .256 to .278.
“Julio is just smoking hot right now and it is fun to watch,” Mariners’ manager Scott Servais said. “Every time up there he expects to get a hit, we expect to watch him get a hit. … Tonight, obviously our offense was on it. We’ve seen Framber Valdez a lot, had really good at-bats tonight early on putting pressure on him.”
Dylan Moore hit a pair of long balls for the Mariners, and Logan Gilbert (11-5) on the season, gave up just two runs on eight hits, struck out three and walked one in six innings of work for his 14th quality start of the year.
The Mariners, who are a scorching 13-3 in their last 16 contest, pulled within 1½ games behind the Astros for the second AL wild-card spot and maintained a half-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays for the third and final AL wild-card spot.
