The Seattle Mariners had just wasted another opportunity on the basepaths and seen their lead against the Kansas City Royals evaporate, when Julio Rodriguez stepped to the plate with two runners aboard in the eighth inning Thursday.
Pitcher George Kirby knew something special was about to happen.
The Mariners’ starting pitcher, whose day on the mound had ended, proceeded to watch the 22-year-old All-Star rip the first pitch he saw from Kansas City reliever Carlos Hernandez over the left-field bullpen. The homer gave Rodriguez a career-best five hits to go with five RBI and, more importantly, lifted the streaking Mariners to a 6-4 series-ending win that left them a half-game behind the Toronto Blue Jays for the third and final AL wild card.
“Thank God for Julio,” Kirby said with a smirk, before adding: “I’d have hated to be the opposing pitcher this week.”
Rodriguez tore the cover off the ball with 12 hits in the four-game set, setting a franchise mark for any series, and joined some elite company in multiple ways: He is the fourth Mariners player with at least four hits in back-to-back games, the fifth player in club history with a five-hit, five-RBI game, and the first Seattle player with at least 20 homers in each of his first two seasons.
To go with all those homers, Rodriguez already has 30 stolen bases this season. That puts him alongside Alex Rodriguez, Mike Cameron, and Ruppert Jones as the only Mariners players in the prestigious 20-30 club.
“That’s absolutely as good as you can do in this league,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “I don’t care who you’re facing.”
Cal Raleigh homered for the second consecutive game in the ninth inning to give Seattle’s bullpen some insurance, though it hardly needed it. Isaiah Campbell (3-0) earned the win with a scoreless seventh, Trent Thornton tossed a perfect eighth and Matt Brash breezed through the ninth to pick up his fourth save.
Carlos Hernandez (1-8) took the L when Rodriguez smacked the first pitch he threw to left field.
“That’s a great hitter,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said. “Put a pretty good swing on a good fastball.”
Nelson Velazquez homered for the fourth time in seven games since his arrival in a trade to Kansas City. MJ Melendez, Michael Massey, and Freddy Fermin also drove in runs for the Royals during a fitting finish to a wacky series.
Each team had a player thrown out at the plate Thursday. Another was cut down on the basepaths, one was picked off first base and Seattle had a runner called out after inexplicably starting back to the dugout when an outfielder dropped his fly ball.
Velazquez’s homer in the fourth knotted the game 1-all, but the Mariners took the lead as the chaos ensued in the sixth.
Royals’ reliever Max Castillo allowed two passes to the first two batters and Rodriguez followed by scorching a liner to left. The ball got pass Melendez, who had misjudged its angle of approach, and wound up at the outfield wall. Cade Marlow scored easily but Dominic Canzone, who had come into the game as a pinch hitter, was thrown out trying to score from first.
It was not the last baserunning blunder.
Maikel Garcia was thrown out at the plate on Witt’s double in the bottom of the inning, though the Royals’ offense remained red hot. Massey tied the game with a single, Melendez redeemed himself with a go-ahead double and Fermin added a sacrifice fly, with the inning coming to a close when Melendez was thrown out at third base.
The most crucial baserunning blunder came in the seventh, though.
Dylan Moore hit a flyball that Melendez raced in and dove to catch. Moore believed he got it cleanly and, after touching first base, turned around and headed for the Seattle dugout. But the ball actually had bounced out of Melendez’s glove, and he threw to first base, where the umpires ruled that Moore had given himself up.
“We screwed up. I’ll be honest with you,” Servais said. “We need to tighten that up. There’s no doubt about it.”
Fortunately for the Mariners, Rodriguez was there to save the day for them one more time with his no-doubt shot the very next inning.
“Today was about Julio,” Servais said. “We’re all real heavy on his back right now.”
