Julio Rodriguez, Mariners Open Road Trip with 4-2 Win Over Angels
ANAHEIM, Calif – It was far shakier than it should have been, but a win is a win on the road. The Seattle Mariners followed up the team’s big acquisition of Josh Naylor with a win on the field as the squad rode three home runs to a 4-2 Thursday win over the Los Angeles Angels, opening a seven-game road trip and a four-game series with a victory.
It was Logan Evans’ fourth win on the mound for Seattle this season as he worked past the Halos lineup for five innings while giving up just a run, a much-improved result compared to his previous two starts.
Although the team struggled with runners in scoring position, the Mariners’ bullpen locked down the end of the game enough to make that issue moot, getting them back in the win column.
Rodriguez, Arozarena Snatch Mid-Game Lead; Polanco Goes Deep for Insurance
Despite his strikeout to strand two men in the sixth, Julio Rodriguez has really put things together this month. It started with the series against the Tigers immediately before the All-Star Break but has continued ever since, with the Mariners center fielder not only getting on base more often than before but also getting balls in the air more frequently.
Seattle’s All-Star center fielder went 2-5 on Thursday and had a momentum-shifting big fly in the fifth inning. It came on a 1-2 fastball up in the zone, which is a pitch Rodriguez has often struggled against this season. But this time, he went the other way with it, sending the ball 377 feet to straightaway right field, a few rows back of the fence.
This was Rodriguez’ 15th home run of the year, and an earlier stolen base brought him up to 20 stolen bases. He thus became the first player in MLB history to have at least 15 home runs and 20 stolen bases each of his first four years in the big leagues.
After a Cal Raleigh single, it was Randy Arozarena up to the plate. He has faced a trajectory opposite to Rodriguez over the second half of the season, as he came into the game just 4-21 since the All-Star break.
And while Arozarena didn’t do much in any of his other at-bats on Thursday, he produced in the fifth. Yusei Kikuchi danced around the strike zone on his way to a 3-1 count and then lofted a slider that didn’t slide out in the middle of the plate.
Seattle’s left fielder promptly smashed the ball. It left the bat at 110 miles an hour and traced a frozen rope through the air on its way to the first row of seats in left field. The Mariners led 3-1 at that point.
The last longball of the game came in the eighth inning. Polanco golfed a fastball at the bottom of the zone over the wall in right center for Seattle, which proved to be a decisive fourth insurance run.
Evans Effective Enough for Five
Evans’ start on the bump Thursday was something of a mixed bag. Seattle’s spectacle-sporting starter struggled to find the strike zone with much of his repertoire – especially the sweeper – early on during the game, and was forced to rely on a fastball that the Halos saw well enough to produce good, solid contact.
Just like the Mariners, the Angels had a first-inning opportunity, but unlike the visitors, they didn’t waste it. The rally began, naturally, with Mike Trout jumping on a pitch over the middle of the plate and scorching it down the left field line for a double. Evans’ 1-2 fastball was well located on the outside corner, but Nolan Schanuel was right on top of it and grounded the ball into right field.
Although Taylor Ward continued the flow with another hard-hit single into left, Yoán Moncada was not so lucky, grounding it sharply to J.P. Crawford. In much better form compared to yesterday, the Mariners shortstop stepped on second and threw to first to complete the double play. But the M’s trailed 1-0 after an inning.
Despite well-hit balls from each of the Angels batters in the second, Evans’ sophomore frame was a quick one. Although the third inning offered the Halos a good chance to score with two on and one away, Evans got a pair of groundouts to keep the score close.
Later on in his start, Evans found much more of a groove, gaining some control and getting more of a feel for the flow of the game after mixing in his changeup more.
“That’s a real weapon,” Evans said. “When I started to use it in this game is when I started to have other pitches open up.”
Evans showed some of this comfortability in the fourth. None of the contact was very threatening, and he mixed up his stuff well to strike out Jo Adell. He faced some more control struggles as the inning progressed, walking Travis d’Arnaud, but the Seattle starter won an eight-pitch battle against LaMonte Wade Jr. for his second strikeout of the inning.
The fifth was similar. Two quick outs were followed by a walk that was followed by a strikeout looking. The punchout came on a beautifully thrown curveball that grazed the outside corner of the plate. That was probably his best pitch all game, and it was his last pitch all game, since Eduard Bazardo came in for the sixth.
Seattle’s starter credited his ability to bounce back to a change in overall approach, and he indicated that Thursday’s game contains lessons for his future career.
“The biggest thing for me is keeping everything simple, getting ahead. But how can I do that?” Evans said. “It’s picking my lanes and executing pitches. And I think I did just that.”
Seattle Suffers RISP Problems
Something that I’ve written about before ad nauseum regarding this Mariners team is inconsistency. The team is great at something for a series, then terrible at it the next series. They look stellar for a week, then look like the American League Rockies the next week. The bullpen will look like it’s made of Rollie Fingers one day and Bobby Ayala the next.
But an unfortunate consistency of the team is issues with runners in scoring position. Despite being tied for the eighth best overall OPS in the majors at .735, their OPS with runners in scoring position is 21st in MLB at .714 – and they’re one of the few teams that is worse with runners in scoring position than without.
Against Kikuchi – who came into this game with a 6.00 ERA in first innings – the Mariners had a good early opportunity to score. Rodriguez smacked a double into left field, Raleigh walked, and the two executed a double steal to both get in scoring position with one out. But Arozarena had trouble catching up to the fastball on the way to a big-impact early strikeout. Mitch Garver flew out to end the top of the first, and so the Mariners wasted an early opportunity.
The next real chance came in the fourth inning. Although Kikuchi got two outs on two pitches, Jorge Polanco worked a seven-pitch walk and Donovan Solano cracked a single into right to make it first and third with two outs. But the next man at the dish was Dylan Moore, whose cyclopean slump continued with an inning-ending can of corn out to left.
Although Seattle had already scored some runs by this point, they had a chance to pile on in the sixth inning. This is a team that has long struggled with adding runs to a lead, and this has been more of an issue this season with a bullpen that isn’t as ironclad as some previous years.
This chance ended up being produced by the bottom of the order. Angels reliever José Quijada couldn’t find the strike zone against Dylan Moore and so the M’s had a man on with one away. Ben Williamson chopped a grounder to third that looked like a potential double play ball, but Luis Rengifo missed the catch at second and Moore got to third while Williamson was easily safe at first.
But Crawford and Rodriguez both struck out, and so once again, nothing came of runners in scoring position.
In total, the Mariners went 0-6 with RISP on Thursday. Although they came out with the win, it was much closer than it needed to be, and going hitless in these opportunities was the biggest reason why.
Speier, Brash Hold M’s Lead
Eduard Bazardo breezed through the sixth and Carlos Vargas got two quick outs – helped by an incredible play from Polanco – to start off the seventh. But Rengifo pounded a ball up the middle to get on and with a 2-0 count to Zach Neto, Vargas abruptly stopped his delivery after seemingly catching his cleats
An easy balk call sent Rengifo to second. Neto cracked a grounder through the hole into left field in the next at bat. Arozarena’s throw was nowhere near good enough to nab the runner at home, and so it was a one-run game with Trout stepping up to the dish.
Dan Wilson went to Gabe Speier to face the vaunted slugger. This was a good move from the Mariners manager, who has often relied quite heavily on lefty/righty matchups both from the ‘pen and at the plate. And Speier did his job to get the last out of the inning, as Trout lofted an easy fly ball to right.
Speier came back out for the eighth with an extra run of insurance, but Schanuel opened the inning with a liner into left center for a single. After a fielder’s choice got the first out, Chris Taylor came in to pinch-hit.
With the three-batter minimum met, Wilson again went to the bullpen, bringing out Matt Brash. Given that Chris Taylor has a reverse split this season (he is a righty who is worse against lefties), this move might have been more about bringing in a fresh arm. But as I said earlier, Wilson likes to play the handedness matchups. Either way, this ended up being the right move: Brash blew the doors off Taylor and Adell to end the inning.
Defense Matters
The ninth shows you why this phrase exists. Every key moment of that inning – bar one – hinged on a ball in play.
Seattle entered this road trip as a team that had been playing uncharacteristically poor defense. On Thursday, they looked quite a bit better. Much has been made of Cole Young’s range, but Polanco showed some really good defensive chops throughout this game at second (neither of them have good range according to Baseball Savant, but that’s a story for another time).
Andrés Muñoz sprinted in to close the game out in the bottom of the ninth as the Mariners held on to a 4-2 lead.
Travis d’Arnaud opened the inning with a hot skipper down the left field line. Williamson expertly fielded the ball and tossed it across the field for the out. Although his throw was quite weak and skipped into Solano’s glove, it was on target, and Williamson’s excellent reaction to the play was why it wasn’t a double in the first place and one out instead.
Wade’s at-bat could very well have been decisive. Muñoz quickly worked an 0-2 count and his next delivery clipped the inside edge of the plate – but home plate umpire Emil Jimenez called it a ball. Wade swung and missed on the next pitch, but it bounced off the dirt, ricocheted off Raleigh, and went to the backstop. Wade made it to first by the time Raleigh got the ball.
Another hot shot came soon after from Rengifo, this time into the right side hole. Polanco bolted over to his left and grabbed the ball on the run before quickly firing over to second. Rengifo made it to first on the fielder’s choice, but it was another hit prevented by Seattle’s defense in the final inning. Two outs, runner on first.
It would have been the third out if not for the missed strike three call or the wild pitch, but as it stood, the M’s weren’t out of the weeds just yet. Neto hit yet another hard grounder, this one down the third base line similar to d’Arnaud’s. Williamson again expertly got to the ball and threw a slow skipper over to first, but this time, the throw brought Solano off the bag.
Mike Trout stood back up to the dish. He had walked twice and hit a double, but it was his longstanding history of Mariner-murder that was in the eyes of everyone in Anaheim. Muñoz didn’t test his luck, and Trout walked on four pitches to load the bases.
Nolan Schanuel got a slider up in the zone on his first pitch and cracked a liner into left. It would have been a routine play for a strong defender in left – but with Arozarena out there, everyone held their breath. But he got two hands to the ball and made the catch to end the game.
On Deck: Josh Naylor
The big news in Mariners world broke before the first pitch was thrown. Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto made the first big splash of the 2025 trade deadline on Thursday, getting first baseman Josh Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for pitching prospects Brandyn Garcia and Ashton Izzi.
“Obviously it’s exciting. It’s great news. We were trying to get prepared for a ball game at the time, so it was a little more subdued, probably, than normal,” Dan Wilson remarked. “Looking forward to welcoming Josh into a Mariners uniform.”
Naylor is set to join the Mariners clubhouse on Friday. It remains to be seen what roster move Seattle will make to open up a spot for the team’s new acquisition.
But there was another win beside the trade and the victory against the Angels. The Astros lost on Thursday against the Athletics, so the deficit in the West is down to five games.
