Mariners notes: Seattle wakes from slump for series win over Houston, Rodriguez’s bat stays hot
When manager Scott Servais was asked what had changed for the Mariners across consecutive wins over a Houston team perennially in contention, he paused.
Before the weekend series, Seattle had returned home from a 3-7 road trip and lost two of three to the rebuilding Oakland Athletics. Suddenly, the Mariners had fallen to the AL West cellar.
But their stay in the division’s basement wouldn’t last long.
The Mariners tagged Astro ace Justin Verlander for four homers on Friday, and took the weekend series opener, 6-1. On Saturday, Seattle continued what was arguably their best two-game stretch of the season and cruised behind seven shutout innings from Logan Gilbert. The 6-0 win was the club’s first shutout of the season.
“We told them to try harder,” Servais said. Clearly sarcasm, he chuckled. “No, we didn’t.
“Our guys are swinging the bat well,” Servais said. “I think they’re swinging at the right pitches. All of our internal metrics say that we are. It’s not going to be every pitch on every night, but the majority of guys are in a good spot controlling the strike zone.”
Outfielder Jesse Winker sensed urgency in Seattle’s clubhouse to turn around a season with postseason aspirations, yet there’s no panic, he told Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton of Seattle Sports on Friday. Winker was scratched from that night’s lineup with a sore shoulder, but returned Saturday, going 1-for-4 with a walk and RBI.
“You want to come in and do your job and perform well,” Winker said. “And that’s what you’re here to do. I think anybody who puts on this uniform can agree to that.
“We’re definitely ready to rewrite this narrative, and we’re just going to keep chipping away at it. It’s so easy to say, ‘it’s 162 games,’ but these games go by fast, and these months fly by.”
Wednesday’s loss to Oakland was Seattle’s 21st defeat in 28 games.
Servais maintained a mantra he’s preached before: improve by one percent. Instead of “finger pointing,” as he dubbed it, Servais hoped for internal reflection.
“What do you need to do to get one percent better? Does that mean that you need to be more consistent in the batter’s box, or on the bases? And if you do that, the collective group will improve and get better,” Servais said.
“The first thing you need to do is look internally. You should not be looking externally and saying, ‘he’s not doing his job and he’s not doing his job.’ That doesn’t work.”
Seattle dropped Sunday’s finale, 2-1, but managed a series win over the Astros and completed their homestand with a 3-3 record. Houston starter Luis Garcia twirled 4 ⅓ perfect innings before Eugenio Suarez walked and went five full innings before surrendering a leadoff single to Luis Torrens in the sixth.
Marco Gonzales kept the Mariners within reach with an exceptional performance, lasting seven and one-third innings and surrendering only two runs on five hits. He walked one and whiffed two across 96 pitches, 59 of them strikes.
“I feel like I’ve been this guy all year,” Gonzales said. “Stop being surprised by it. I think I’ve been throwing the ball really well, and I’m just trying to give my team a chance to win.”
Houston’s Jeremy Pena blasted a second-inning home run that gave the Astros a 1-0 lead. Gonzales worked perfect third and fourth frames and Ty France tied the game in the sixth on a run-scoring single through the right infield.
Houston reclaimed the lead on Yordan Alvarez’s bases-loaded single in the eighth.
In the ninth, Seattle trailed by a run, but loaded the bases with one out. With 28,986 on their feet at T-Mobile Park, Houston closer Ryan Pressly induced a game-ending 5-4-3 double play off the bat of Luis Torrens. The comeback – and potential sweep – fell short.
“We needed a series win, and that’s what we came in to do,” Gonzales said. “I think the off-day (Thursday) did wonders for us. We came out swinging.”
JULIO STAYS HOT
Julio Rodriguez just keeps hitting.
In May, no American League rookie has been better.
Entering Sunday’s game, the 21-year-old Rodriguez led all AL rookies in hits (33), home runs (6), total bases (56), and wRC+ (171) this month. He’s second in FanGraphs’ calculation of wins above replacement among AL rookies for the month (1.2) and tallied three hits on Saturday night with a run scored.
On Friday, he took Justin Verlander deep for a first-inning homer, and Seattle built on the two-run blast in a 6-1 win.
“He’s a really good pitcher,” Rodriguez said of Verlander. “He was one of the guys I was really looking forward to facing because of that. Being able to get that homer, I definitely learned a lot. How his pitches move… I was able to be ready for that (fastball).”
Rodriguez turned on Verlander’s fastball offering. He sat on the pitch the entire time, he told reporters.
“I was able to get it, and I executed my plan, just driving it out.”
Rodriguez’s season dramatically turned in May. Pitchers attacked the 6-foot-3, 228-pound center fielder with a heavy dosage of breaking balls early on, and Rodriguez continued to chase. His 30 strikeouts for the month of April were second-most in the league, despite an unfathomable stretch of missed strike three calls by umpires. Only Cleveland’s Franmil Reyes struck out more (35).
Rodriguez said he learned how pitchers approached him, and adjusted. His chase rate dropped, and opposing arms could no longer exclusively offer him breaking balls in the dirt. His .327/.358/.554 slash line in May includes six home runs and 16 RBI, entering Sunday’s game.
“(I’m) being myself, honestly,” Rodriguez said. “I definitely made adjustments, but I feel like I haven’t changed who I am since I got here. I feel like (I should) just keep being myself, just keep playing my game, and it’s gonna keep me consistent.”
SHORT HOPS
Kyle Lewis was scratched from Seattle’s lineup Sunday, but only for a day off, Servais told reporters.
Lewis is 4-for-15 (.267) this season in four games with Seattle after completing a 20-day rehab stint with Triple-A Tacoma earlier this month. He won’t see time in Seattle’s outfield for the foreseeable future after suffering a meniscus tear nearly a year ago, but will continue designated hitter duties when the Mariners kick off a road trip in Baltimore on Tuesday.
“We’re playing the long game here,” Servais said. “We really want to have him available for the remainder of the season.”
Lewis homered in consecutive games on Friday and Saturday, the first a 441-foot moonshot off of Verlander that landed in Seattle’s bullpen.
“A guy like (Verlander), you don’t get many opportunities,” Lewis said Friday night. “The first two pitches, I swung and missed, but I wanted to get the swings off. … Whatever you get, you’ve got to get the most of it. … I was fortunate he left one up.”
Julio Rodriguez leads the major leagues with 14 stolen bases.
RHP Logan Gilbert has lasted seven innings in each of his last three starts, the club’s longest such streak since Gonzales lasted at least seven innings in four consecutive starts from Sept. 11-28, 2019.
Ty France extended his career-best hitting streak to 11 games on Sunday on a two-out single in the sixth inning. The streak began on May 18, and since, France is 19-for-44 (.432) with two home runs and 10 RBI. France’s 200 hits across his last 162 games (before Sunday) led MLB.
“He has the ability to keep his bat in the zone as long as anybody in the league,” Servais said of France, “and a lot of guys don’t. … His room for error is greater for most hitters. He could be on fastball timing, but he rides it out and the barrel’s still there to handle breaking balls.”
ON DECK
Sunday’s loss dropped the Mariners to 20-28 and ten games behind the division-leading Astros.
After an off-day Monday – their second in five days – Seattle travels to Baltimore for a three-game set with the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Six road games in Texas follow: three with the Rangers (June 3-5) and three with the Astros at Minute Maid Park from June 6-8.
George Kirby gets the nod for Seattle’s series opener in Baltimore on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:05 p.m. PST.
“I’m really happy with how we bounced back after a rough start to this homestand,” Servais said Sunday. “If we continue to do that, we’ll be fine going forward.”
This story was originally published May 29, 2022 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Mariners notes: Seattle wakes from slump for series win over Houston, Rodriguez’s bat stays hot."
