J-Rod stays red-hot vs. Rangers with 2-HR night
ARLINGTON — Julio Rodríguez made sure on Friday that the Rangers hadn’t forgotten about him a week after Seattle took three of four from Texas at T-Mobile Park.
As part of Rodríguez’s 3-for-5 evening in the Mariners’ 8-2 win, he took Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter deep twice, accounting for five of the eight driven in for Seattle. It was Julio’s fourth multi-home run game in his career and the first in his 2024 campaign.
Friday was the third time in Rodríguez’s career he recorded five RBIs. The other two came on Aug. 17, 2023, at Kansas City and on July 15, 2022, also at Globe Life Field vs. the Rangers.
“I feel on time, putting good swings on the baseball and trying to make some good, solid contact,” he said. “It’s been working good.”
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The win helped the Mariners gain a game on the Tigers and Royals in the AL Wild Card race, as both lost their games Friday. Seattle was able to keep pace with the Twins, who won at Boston, and remains two games back of Minnesota for the final spot.
“You have to win the games you can win. Tonight, we did what we had to do, celebrated for a minute, then we regroup and we will try to do it again tomorrow,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “We stressed that we can’t get ahead of ourselves, but this was a good one tonight and a good way to start the road trip, and we have a lot of big games ahead of us.”
The Mariners attempted to add another run with the speed of Victor Robles, who returned to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game with a right-hand contusion. Robles laid a bunt down for a hit, stole second and took third as Rangers catcher Jonah Heim threw a ball that skipped to center field, but Randy Arozarena’s flyout to left field ended the threat.
The Mariners were able to rack up deGrom’s pitch count to knock him out of the game after three innings and 58 pitches
deGrom is really good; you’ve got to give the guy his flowers,” Rodríguez said. “He just got back [and] that’s his second start. He’s pumping 99, throwing good sliders, [and] staying low in the zone. We have to stay within yourself with that guy with small thoughts because he’s really good.”
Meanwhile, the Texas offense managed an earned run against George Kirby — something it hadn’t done since Sept. 28, 2022 — in the fourth, on a Nathaniel Lowe two-run single
