“I Was Trying to Be Me”: Lazaro Montes Excels in MLB Debut, M’s Win 9-6
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Seattle Mariners designated hitter Lazaro Montes (99) reacts as he runs the bases after hitting a home run during the fifth inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Eric Canha-Imagn Images [/caption]
Yordan Alvarez comparisons had long since fallen out of favor for Lazaro Montes, at least in neutral outlets. Although his power was palpable throughout his minor league tenure (he had 38 homers between Double-A and Triple-A between the beginning of the year and his promotion on Sept. 1), his swing-and-miss proclivities were a sharp departure from the imposing contact rates of perhaps the most complete hitter among the current generation.
The jury still doubts that Montes will be sterling Alvarez, while he still has more work to do to prove whether he was called up at the right time. But there’s no disputing that the Mariners’ most recent call-up had one of the best debuts anyone could possibly ask for.
When a slicing fly ball to dead center disappeared into the triangular mass of fans in that particular nook of Fenway Park’s iconic grandstands, Montes became the first Cuban player since Alvarez to homer in his MLB debut. He became the 38th debutant in baseball history to log a least a homer, walk, and two total hits, joining a club inaugurated by “Frosty Bill” Duggleby in 1898 [1].
“I was trying to be me, be myself like they told me and like I learned,” Montes said after the game. “And giving 100% no matter what happens.”
Montes’ stellar 2-for-4 debut - and the Mariners’ concurrent 9-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox - were a welcome interruption to the five-game losing streak the team had suffered, though the season-crushing losses were fait accompli before the rookie set foot in Fenway Park’s visiting dugout. But though Montes had a night he won’t soon forget and the Mariners scored nine runs, the win was closer than it might have initially seemed.
Dominic Canzone started the game off with a solo shot in the first, though Mickey Gasper tied it back up in the bottom half. Seattle, however, roared out to five runs in the top of the second, powered by a three-run shot from Randy Arozarena to make it 6-1. Montes’ first major league hit was a single to score Josh Naylor in the third and, after another M’s run in the fourth, Montes’ inaugural big-league shot gave Seattle a 9-1 advantage in the fifth. The swing itself didn’t even appear to be his full A-swing, as he got caught slightly in-between on a two-strike slider at the bottom of the zone, but it went 407 feet out to dead center nonetheless.
Montes did the Randy Arozarena-style trident guitar licks in his ensuing dugout celebration, something the left fielder apparently demonstrated for him earlier in the dugout.
“He (Arozarena) showed me, so I learned from him,” Montes said. “He did it first in the first inning, you know, before me, so I said, ‘okay, I like that. Let me try it, though.’”
The connection between the two - both Cuban-born - was evident throughout the game. Montes (draw what symbolism you wish) beat Arozarena in a best-of-three rock-paper-scissors between innings, rather humorously shown on Mariners TV:
BREAKING: Laz Montes beats Randy Arozarena in a best-of-3 Rock/Paper/Scissors matchup during the umpire change #Mariners pic.twitter.com/cDTu63pzzv— Jake | RaiseTheTrident (@RaiseTheTrident) September 2, 2026
“He has such a jovial personality and just wears it all the time,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said of the rookie’s clubhouse impact. “Just having him in the dugout, and the conversations he has, the the fun he has in the game, and he just brings that you know every single day. Today was no different. You know, it doesn't matter what dugout he's in, whether it's a big league dugout or you know down in Tacoma, he's just the same guy, and it's just a lot of fun.”
But the most important thing was how Montes played on the field. His performance wasn’t especially different from his profile in both its good and bad aspects, with him missing four out of 11 swings but also clocking two hard hit balls. Hard hit baseballs can, quite literally, go a long way, and they certainly help paper over contact issues like the ones Montes has.
Between the easy power and the uneasy contact, however, was the same level of plate discipline that Montes had shown in Tacoma.
“I thought the walk was impressive. I thought he had some good takes today, he wasn't jumpy, I think just continued to be himself and didn't try to do too much, like we talk about,” Wilson said. “And I think that's really what's shown through, especially with that, particularly the walk in the first AB, and then the single, and then the homer. Just really good takes, really good approach at the plate. And I thought for a guy making his debut, he put up some really good at bats.”
Montes’ came against the very team he used to grow up rooting for, an irony that wasn’t lost on the rookie.
“In Cuba, we only heard about two teams: Yankees and Boston. That was the only teams we heard of in Cuba,” Montes said. “So, when I was a child, this was my favorite team, Boston. So, I said, ‘wow, now I gotta beat Boston, ‘cause I’m in Seattle now.”
The rest of the Mariners still had a game to play, even with a 9-1 lead. Despite the first inning shot from Gasper, starter Bryan Woo had the best road performance since mid-May, finally logging a quality start away from home and leaving at least some of his turgid road ERA behind him. His four-seam fastball was playing up in the zone and he kept his sinker down while locating his slider, creating the separation needed to miss bats and log seven strikeouts in his two-run, six-inning showing.
Woo, who has often clawed for answers in dreary postgame pressers this season, took an attitude of blocking out the narratives.
“It’s baseball, it is what it is,” Woo said of his previous road woes. “You’re never really in it or out of it, it’s just kind of, I could go back out and have another bad one, I could go out and have 10 good ones in a row. It’s how much can you just make it one game at a time, not making any narratives one way or another, just do what you can to win today’s game.”
The bullpen turned out to be the shakiest part of the Mariners’ game on Tuesday. Carlos Vargas gave up a two-run double in the bottom of the seventh and, although Jose A. Ferrer worked a clean eighth, the Mariners’ other September callup got the ninth.
Hoby Milner was fresh off signing a minor league contract with the M’s after being released by the Cubs, and with rosters expanding on Sept. 1, the two new spots went to Milner and Montes. Milner - whose first name is apparently a “Baywatch” reference, as he revealed in a somewhat bizarre pregame presser in which he chastised nameless non-Mariners, non-Cubs teams for having bad entry interviews where they don’t elaborate on a role for the potential entrant (holding the M’s up as a shining counterexample), before saying less than 20 seconds later that that there hadn’t “been any conversation about roles or anything” with the Mariners - however, had a far less shiny performance.
Roman Anthony singled and Jarren Duran homered to turn the 9-4 game into a 9-6 game. Although Milner got one out, Wilson immediately went for Andrés Muñoz to close it out as soon as Milner put up the three batter minimum. It was a quicker and more concise decision than those he has often made this year, and “Señor Smoke” put out the fire to seal the win.
“We saw here what happens in this ballpark at times,” Wilson said of his decision to nip the Red Sox in the bud. “And so thought just it was a time to go there and close it out and slam the door.”
It was a bow on a performance that few will remember for anything but what the rookie Montes accomplished. And although his greatest achievements came once the bright lights turned on in that ancient baseball cathedral, he summed up his attitude in some of his first pregame words with the media.
“I feel like I made it. I made it, you know, that feeling is amazing.”
[1] That club has some auspicious names like Frank Howard and Todd Helton, but also some less auspicious guys like Joey Gallo and George Wright.
