SEATTLE – Wind?
Marine layer?
When you are capable of hitting the ball with as much power as Julio Rodriguez, those things don’t necessarily matter. Just get the ball squarely on the barrel and let physics take over.
With the Mariners trailing by a run, the offense looking ineffectual and another frustrating loss to start the 2025 season looming, he changed it all with one swing in the bottom of the fifth.
Rodriguez took advantage of a first-pitch slider from A’s starter J.P. Sears that hung on the inner half of the plate, sending a majestic blast into the upper deck of left field for his first homer of the season.
His two-run blast provided all the offense necessary in the Mariners 2-1 victory over the A’s. Seattle salvaged a split in the season-opening, four-game series.
With a constant and somewhat chilly wind making Sunday afternoon uncomfortable for fans at T-Mobile Park and irritating for hitters by knocking down flyballs to center and right field, Rodriguez drove it to the optimal location.
But when a ball comes off the bat with a 113-mph exit velocity and travels 438 feet, a small tornado isn’t stopping it from being a homer.
“You can’t control where you hit the ball,” Rodriguez said. “Hitting is already difficult. I got a good pitch, got out front and I was able to drive it that way.”
For manager Dan Wilson, Rodriguez’s prolonged discipline to the overall team hitting approach preached by Edgar Martinez was a big part of the result.
“We talk about it a lot with staying to the middle of field,” Wilson said. “You’ll get your fastball, and you’ll be able to hit that up the middle or the other way, and then the breaking ball that’s out front, you’ll catch it early and hit that ball a long way to the pull side. And that’s what Julio did.”
Somewhat lost in the majesty and celebration of Rodriguez’s mammoth blast was the extended at-bat from Victor Robles that put the tying run on base.
The Mariners leadoff hitter, who led off the game with an infield single, forced a 3-2 count and beat out a groundball to shortstop Jacob Wilson to bring Rodriguez to the plate as the go-ahead run. Seattle had only five hits as a team and Robles had two of them.
“That’s what he does,” Rodriguez said. “He’s always going to put a great at-bat for us. He’s just diverse. He’s an eventful at-bat every time.”
The Mariners got a quality start from Bryan Woo. Making his first start of the season and his MLB start in the month of April, Woo pitched six strong innings, allowing one run on three hits with two walks and five strikeouts.
His only mistake came in the fourth inning when he threw back-to-back changeups to start the at-bat against Tyler Soderstrom. The second one stayed in the middle of the zone, allowing Soderstrom to pull it over the wall in left field for a 1-0 lead. It was Soderstrom’s third homer of the series — all solo homers.
Seattle got scoreless innings from relievers Gregory Santos and Trent Thornton to had the ball to Andrés Muñoz with a one-run lead in the ninth. The Mariners closer picked up his second save of the season, pitching a scoreless ninth.