SEATTLE — The out-of-town scoreboard beyond left field at T-Mobile Park flashed a consequential final score on Tuesday night mere moments before Mariners slugger Randy Arozarena stepped to the plate in the third inning.
The Astros had just been walked off in Toronto, paving the way for Seattle to pull to within one game of first place in the American League West with a win over the Cardinals.
Arozarena dug into the batter’s box knowing what was at stake, worked into a 2-0 count with two runners on and the Mariners trailing by two, then dug out a 94.2 mph bread-basket fastball from St. Louis starter Matthew Liberatore for a sky-high, second-deck homer.
The place went nuts. The Mariners reclaimed the lead and would never trail again in an eventual 5-3 victory. And the separation at the top of the division tightened that much more with just 17 games to play.
“I feel like everybody saw it,” Julio Rodríguez said of the out-of-town scoreboard. “You guys saw it. It’s right there. There are some times where you have some time where you go, ‘Let’s see how the other games are going.’ So, everybody sees it.”
It’s not just Houston that Seattle is scoreboard-watching, though. Texas is on the club’s heels, and was also victorious on Tuesday to remain 1 1/2 games behind the Mariners — who have won four straight — for the final AL Wild Card spot.
“We just want to win every single game because other teams are right there, or you want to chase something,” said Rodríguez, who had a remarkable running and leaping catch at the warning track for the third out in the seventh.
“That’s just the reality of it. Even if you say, ‘Maybe we don’t watch it,’ or whatever. But the reality is that we need to win games. It feels really good, the extra adrenaline. That extra little pressure is good — it’s really good.”
Arozarena’s big blast traveled a projected 405 feet and hung for an extended 6.0 seconds, per Statcast, ample time for him to pinwheel his bat down the first-base line before the ball ricocheted off the facade of the upper deck. After, he turned to the home dugout and raised both arms wide in unison, a gesture as if to ask, “Are you not entertained?”
Because indeed, entertainment is Arozarena’s speciality. The homer was his 27th of the year, extending his career high in this All-Star season, and a bases-loaded sacrifice fly in the fourth pushed his RBI tally on the night to four, one shy of a season-high.
Those moments were sandwiched between arguably just as booming of a homer — one arguably more emphatically emotional — from Josh Naylor, a 415-foot solo shot that prompted him, too, to unleash his lumber towards his teammates before beginning his trot. Naylor now has 19 this year, which coupled with his 25 stolen bases, has him on the cusp of an elite 20/20 season.
“Energy is, for sure, contagious,” Naylor said. “It’s infectious. You kind of just feed off one another. It’s super cool to kind of be in those situations and come through for your team and then get excited, and feel the rest of the boys get excited. And then someone else does something cool, and then they get excited, and then it’s just a super cool camaraderie.”
Naylor, who ripped a go-ahead, bases-loaded double in Monday’s win, has been a boon since being acquired at the Trade Deadline, and particularly at T-Mobile Park, where he now sports a slash line of .379/.438/.724 (1.162 OPS) in 17 games.
He also made a critical defensive play in the ninth to help Andrés Muñoz notch his 34th save, stabbing a chopping grounder that seemed destined to find the outfield but instead went for the first out. Immediately after, he helped ease Muñoz during a mound visit, by simply asking: “What’s your plan for later today?”
It was an effort to have “just casual conversations, just to keep it light,” and another way that he’s endearing himself to his new teammates and a fanbase clamoring for Seattle’s front office to bring him back in free agency.
“It’s super cool to be a part of,” Naylor said. “Sometimes, you kind of feel the ground shaking a bit because it’s so loud.”
Scoreboard-watching is inevitable at this time of year. And if the Mariners keep winning, it’ll be their games that other teams are tuning into — potentially as the team to chase down.
