> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Julio Rodríguez, Mariners Defy Murphy’s Law, Take Game 2 to Tie ALDS - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/julio-rodriguez-mariners-defy-murphys-law-take-game-2-to-tie-alds/ - Published: 2025-10-06T04:55:24.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T05:57:56.000Z - Author: Callaghan Bluechel - Tags: News, Mariners, Julio Rodriguez, Cal Raleigh, Jorge Polanco, Luis Castillo, Gabe Speier, Dan Wilson, Eduard Bazardo, Matt Brash, Josh Naylor, Andres Munoz [Embed from Getty Images](http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/2239473609?ref=emeraldcityspectrum.com) SEATTLE, Wash. — When all seemed lost, when Murphy’s Law seemed to be on the verge of conquering Seattle once again, the heroes of the city rose to the challenge. Even decades after the moment that defines the sparse good parts of this franchise’s history, the two stars paid an on-field homage to Edgar Martinez’ *Aristeia.* Cal Raleigh, surrounded by booming chants of “MVP,” rocketed a double down the right field line. A couple pitches later, Julio Rodríguez sent one down the left field line to retake the lead. It was the deciding play of the game. Less than half an hour later, the Seattle Mariners won their first home playoff game since Oct. 15, 2001. ### Tarik Skubal throws seven stalwart innings but is kept from a shutout by Jorge Polanco. It was a performance as advertised for the Tigers’ renowned ace, even if it was less than his very best. Just four days after striking out 14 batters, Skubal struck out nine. He kept his pitch count remarkably low, able to go through seven frames on less than 100 pitches. Although Skubal had made mistakes in the first three innings, he had contained them to the world of walks and singles. But Jorge Polanco had other ideas in the bottom of the fourth. The Mariners’ second baseman’s eyes lit up as a 2-0 slider rode right down Broadway, and his swing was hard and precise. The ball left his bat on a razor-straight line to left center field, Riley Greene and Parker Meadows chasing it vainly as it cleared the wall for the first run of the game. Skubal worked back into a groove right after, preventing any crooked numbers from coalescing. But it seemed Polanco would never go away as a bugbear. The next time the two met, it was the bottom of the sixth. Once again, nobody was on base, but this time, Skubal attacked Polanco ferociously—and Polanco battled back, working a full count. Yet once again a ball went right down the groove. Polanco put another titanic swing on the ball and sent a drive to deep left. It was Déjà vu for Greene as he tracked the ball to the wall and watched it sail underneath the manual scoreboard to extend the Mariners’ lead to 2-0. ### Castillo shuts out the Tigers for nearly five innings, but four walks and a high pitch count give the bullpen another hard task. The Mariners mostly got what they wanted from Luis Castillo. He kept the opening shutout intact for his entire start and brought a no-hitter into the fifth inning. However, his pitch count skyrocketed early and was never able to fully recover, and before the fifth inning had come to a close, Mariners manager Dan Wilson had to go to his bullpen. Castillo had issues missing up and towards his glove side with the four-seamers and low and arm-side on changeups, leaving him reliant on a slider for much of the early game. He started mixing in sinkers in the second inning to get strikes, aiming for the middle whenever he wasn’t throwing junk, and he was able to work past three early walks in the first two frames. Still, he was falling into the bad habit of throwing the same junkball twice whenever he got to two strikes, driving up his pitch count with three-ball counts and the aforementioned free passes. The Mariner hurler finally settled down in the third and fourth with 17 total pitches through those two frames. He clamped down on his shaky earlier habits, attacking hitters with four-seamers and sliders. But that run of form didn’t last past the first out of the fifth. After going up 1-2 on Javy Báez with one out, he threw a slider low and away. Had he immediately switched things up, Báez would have likely missed or gotten weak contact—but Castillo went with the exact same pitch, and Báez was able to predict it easily and lay off. Another delivery low and away put him aboard. Although Castillo got one out on a force at second, he wasn’t so lucky on a perfectly executed hit-and-run by Gleyber Torres that forced Polanco out of the ball’s path. Runners stood at first and third with Kerry Carpenter stepping into the batter’s box. ### Gabe Speier puts out fifth inning fire and deals extra frame to set up the final third of the game. On Saturday, Wilson had let George Kirby stay on to finish a similar situation against Carpenter—but the Tiger right fielder had walloped a go-ahead home run. This time around, Wilson brought in Gabe Speier to finish out the inning. Castillo received a standing ovation as he left the mound for possibly the last time this season. Speier kept it low early on, but once he got to two strikes, the reliever sent Carpenter a fastball right down the middle. Emblazoned on its cover was the same message Leonidas gave the Persians at Thermopylae: *come and take it.* Carpenter swung right through it. Seattle’s lead lived to fight another day. It seemed Wilson learned another lesson from Saturday, as he let Speier pitch the sixth, which he did with ease. Eduard Bazardo yielded a single but got through the seventh with similarly few struggles and the M’s were six outs away from a bounce-back victory in spite of Detroit’s ace. But although that victory came, it would not come easy—and it all seemed to fall apart in the eighth. ### Josh Naylor’s rough day at the plate extends to his defense. The Mariners’ deadline acquisition at first base was one of the team’s most consistent heroes in August and September. But dogged by a shoulder injury that worsened in the last week of the season, he was unable to put a good swing on the ball all day. He had already gone 0-3 with a strikeout by the eighth and would pop up later in the frame to complete his bad day. Yet his worst moments came as Matt Brash struggled through the eighth inning. Gleyber Torres, despite falling behind 1-2, had worked a leadoff walk—but a one-out chopper to first portended a pitcher getting help from his best friend. The routine grounder kicked off Naylor’s body and into a no-man’s-land behind him, however, allowing the Tigers to get the tying run on first base. And yet, Naylor had a chance to get a crucial second out anyway. Or he would have, had he not fallen for a rather basic dummy move from Riley Greene. Greene danced off the bag as Brash threw, drawing Naylor towards him. His positioning to start with was subpar, well too concerned with the trailing runner and too far away from the line, but he turned himself even farther away from it as he attended to Greene. Spencer Torkelson shot the ball down the right field line, well out of his reach, and knocked in both runners with a double. The game was tied going into the bottom of the eighth. ### Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez save the Mariners’ season with an eighth-inning rally. Momentum had caromed away from Seattle, the team on the verge of falling back into an extra-inning brawl with their bullpen exhausted and the opposing arms fresh. The team was staring into the abyss of a two-game hole and a likely first round defeat for the second straight playoff appearance. A glimpse of a chance shone as the bottom of the eighth began. Tarik Skubal, whose only issue all game had been Jorge Polanco, did not go out to pitch in the eighth. Kyle Finnegan, who had a solid 3.47 ERA in the regular season, was his replacement. Finnegan punched Arozarena out to begin the inning, but a splitter that didn’t split found nothing but the sweet spot of Cal Raleigh’s bat and the corner of the right field grass. And with just one swing, Julio Rodríguez the mere All-Star withered away—and Julio Rodríguez the promised superstar arrived. He cracked another hanging splitter, sending it on a frozen rope about 10 feet over Zach McKinstry’s head. Hope, all but withered away 15 minutes before, spread throughout the stadium in an instant. It was mixed with catharsis and ecstasy, as 47,371 people saw for themselves a look at the promised land. The Tigers kept it close, as Rodríguez was thrown out at the plate on a ground ball to third, but it was all the M’s needed. There was no hiccup in Andrés Muñoz’ save; Parker Meadows softly grounded a ball to Naylor, who fielded it cleanly and threw to Muñoz for the final out of the game. ### Seattle goes on the road with a series knotted at a game apiece rather than facing elimination. There is still one game of breathing room thanks to the efforts of the Mariners’ heroes on Sunday night. Logan Gilbert will take the mound in Game 3 as Seattle looks to get out to a 2-1 series lead in the Motor City. With a struggling Bryce Miller all but certain to be on the mound in Game 4, Gilbert also faces little realistic margin for error. But in T-Mobile Park on Sunday, the M’s showcased the resilience that got them this far.