SEATTLE — It was a party that this region hasn’t seen in 24 years, and Julio Rodríguez got it started in a big way on Wednesday night.
The Mariners’ star center fielder blasted a two-run homer during the first inning of Game 3 of the American League Championship Series against the Blue Jays, hammering a middle-in fastball from Shane Bieber into the home bullpen and sending T-Mobile Park into bedlam.
Wednesday’s contest was just the sixth ALCS game in the ballpark’s history and first since 2001. The Mariners obviously lost that series to the Yankees and remain MLB’s only team that’s never played in the World Series.
The Blue Jays, however, surged back with 12 runs from the third through the sixth innings en route to taking Game 3, 13-4, and cutting Seattle’s edge in the best-of-seven series to 2-1 — lending credence to the Mariners preaching urgency, with Rodríguez’s first-inning homer being a prime example.
The ball scorched off Rodríguez’s bat at 112.2 mph and sailed 414 feet, nicking the out-of-town scoreboard beyond left field before dropping in front of his reliever teammates. And it scored Randy Arozarena, too, who led off with a walk then stole second base to put Bieber on the ropes.
“I was just trying to stay to my approach and just put a good swing to the baseball,” Rodríguez said. “And I was able to drive it out.”
The Mariners have now scored 20 of their 36 runs in these playoffs via homers, after ranking second in MLB during the regular season by scoring via their homers at a 50% clip. Rodríguez also went deep during the first inning of Game 2 with a three-run shot that proved vital, given how Toronto mounted momentum shortly after and eventually tied that game in the second against Logan Gilbert.
In Seattle’s limited postseason history, Wednesday’s homer was just its fifth in the first inning — and Rodríguez now accounts for two of those in the past two games alone. The other three were from Cal Raleigh, Edgar Martinez and Mike Cameron.
In these playoffs, Rodríguez — who also singled in the third inning — is slugging .545 with an .887 OPS and eight RBIs through 33 at-bats, continuing the torrid second half in which he was among MLB’s most productive players.
The Mariners will greatly benefit from Rodríguez staying hot in Game 4 as they look to keep the Blue Jays from tying this series and ensuring that it will shift back to Toronto for a Game 6.
“Just flush it off,” Rodríguez said. “I mean, you learn from the game and that you could have done better, and then move on. That’s kind of the model of baseball. You always kind of get to continue to move forward.”
