M’s Resilient Game 2 Win Showed Growth from Julio Rodríguez, Dan Wilson
SEATTLE, Wash. — Mariners manager Dan Wilson could scarcely hide the joy on his face as he talked about Julio Rodríguez’ Sunday night game-winner, a double down the line on his first swing of the at-bat against Tigers reliever Kyle Finnegan. Wilson gave quite a few heartfelt smiles as his eyes beamed with pride in his player.
“His maturity here that he has experienced throughout the season has really paid off,” Wilson said. “We saw it tonight, just coming up huge there, it’s a huge RBI … to stay in that moment, to not try to do too much, that says so much about Julio and what he has done for us all season.”
It is easy to forget that Rodríguez is only 24 years old, the second-youngest player on the Mariners’ ALDS roster. He was one of the few players called a superstar before ever setting foot in an MLB stadium, and that expectation set something of a contradictory tone. Although he was on pace for a solid year in the first half, with above-average offense and stellar defense, the disconnect between superstar expectations and good-but-not-great reality caused an uproar when he was selected to the All-Star Game.
Some of the loudest voices calling his appearance undeserved were coming from close to home, as disappointed Seattleites from Facebook users to radio personalities vented their frustrations, often to the utter confusion of national media. Rodríguez took it difficultly—the Seattle-centered backlash surely stung worse on the heels of his house being burglarized—but soberly; with three games left before the All-Star Break, he announced he would not be participating in the midyear festivities.
From then until the end of the season, Rodríguez slashed .299/.356/.598, hit 21 home runs, stole 15 bases, and brought 51 runs home. But more than any of those regular season accolades, what the Mariners needed on Sunday night was a clutch knock in a tied playoff game. Although Rodríguez’ full season OPS was .798, that figure rose to .830 during tied games. Once again, he came up big when the moment demanded.
Clutch was the word that loomed big in the minds of many after Sunday’s heroics, but Rodríguez reminded us that there is no lax situation in a playoff game. Not when the Blue Jays held an 8-1 lead over the Mariners in Rodríguez’ rookie year were those moments moot; the Mariners’ center fielder caught the final out of that game in a 10-9 win.
“In games like this, any situation is clutch,” Rodríguez noted. “You can win a game in the first three innings of the game, the middle of the game, or late in the game, because every single run matters.
His journey has not always been easy, but with the weight of the Mariners’ world seemingly always placed upon his shoulders, Rodríguez is quickly developing an ability to continue feeding on the crowd while also tuning out the noise. He is not always able to keep things slow and measured—there are big moments where a slider low and away gets an ugly chase—but more and more often, the vast potential of Julio Rodríguez is coming to fruition.
“At the end of the day, people are going to call me whatever they want to call me, but I feel like the biggest pride I take is helping the team win any situation I can; I feel like that’s what makes me feel good,” Rodríguez said. “And if they want to say that I’m clutch, too? Cool! So be it.”
The game marked growth for many people involved. Two games in a row, Kerry Carpenter strolled up to the plate with two outs in the fifth inning as the Mariners starter faced a jam on their third time through the lineup. In Game 1, Dan Wilson left his starter in the game—and Carpenter knocked the cover off the baseball for a go-ahead home run.
“It was like déjà vu all over again,” Wilson said about seeing Carpenter come up in the same situation once more, drawing on one of baseball’s most famous Yogi-isms. Had Wilson left Castillo in the game, it might have worked (and that would have probably been the call in the regular season), but trying the same thing expecting different results is, as they say, the definition of insanity. Wilson sent Gabe Speier on in relief, and he promptly blew Carpenter’s door down.
It’s the reality of playoff baseball. The margins are too tight, chances for bouncing back too few, to make decisions favoring things like bullpen stamina over the grave situation at hand. All season long, when a reliever has put out a fire in one inning, the M’s have typically sent out a different reliever for the next frame, a strategy to balance the arms’ endurance with its readiness.
And in Game 1, Wilson had followed that script. After Eduard Bazardo bailed Caleb Ferguson out of a sixth-inning jam, the ball turned over to Speier in the seventh and Matt Brash in the eighth. But with the game still tied and extra innings looming ahead, just one top-end arm remained in the bullpen by the ninth: Andrés Muñoz. The M’s caught a stroke of luck with a short ninth inning that allowed him to return for the 10th, but when the tie continued into the 11th, Wilson had to put his trust in less secure arms. Carlos Vargas, the man on the mound in that final inning, gave up the game-deciding run due to a wild pitch.
Once again, Wilson changed up his strategy for Game 2. Speier made his way back out to the mound for the sixth inning and drove past three Tigers with ease. Muñoz’ effort was once again phenomenal, but this time, he was awarded with the save.
It had been 4,061 games since the last time the Mariners had won a postseason game at home. If all goes right for the Mariners, their first ALDS win since 2001 could come on its heels.
