Seattle Mariners' Julio Rodríguez Notches 5-Hit Game, Home Run to Make History
Seattle Mariners superstar Julio Rodríguez made history in three distinct ways Thursday afternoon.
The outfielder went 5-for-5 with five RBI out of the leadoff spot against the Kansas City Royals on Thursday, powering his team to a 6-4 win. Rodríguez opened the day with an infield single in the first, followed by an RBI single in the second, another infield single in the fourth, and RBI double in the sixth and a go-ahead three-run home run in the eighth.
Before he even hit the home run that helped decide the game, Rodríguez had already joined some pretty elite company in franchise history.
Rodríguez had also gone 4-for-6 against the Royals on Wednesday, making Thursday the second day in a row he reached the four-hit mark. According to MLB.com's Sarah Langs, it became only the sixth streak of back-to-back four-hit games in Mariners history.
No Seattle player had notched two consecutive four-hit performances since Dee Strange-Gordon in 2018, and Kendrys Morales in 2013 was the most recent prior to that. Ichiro Suzuki was the only player in franchise history to achieve the feat before then, doing so once in 2006 and twice in 2004.
The home run that Rodríguez went on to hit in the eighth inning was his 20th of the season. Rodríguez entered Thursday with 30 stolen bases on the year, so that clutch bomb clinched him his second 20-20 season in a row.
According to Langs, Rodríguez joins Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. as the only two players in MLB history to post 20-plus home runs and 20-plus stolen bases in each of their first two seasons at the big league level.
In addition to putting him on that exclusive list, Rodríguez's home run also gave him nine hits in a two-day span, which is the most by any player this season. Per Langs, the 22-year-old Rodríguez is the youngest player to rack up that many hits across just two games since Frankie Hayes in 1936.
Rodríguez is now batting .269 with a .780 OPS this season, both of which are notable dropoffs from his 2022 numbers. Last season, Rodríguez won AL Rookie of the Year and a Silver Slugger, all while finishing seventh in AL MVP voting and guiding Seattle to the postseason for the first time in 21 years.
The outfielder has already been named an All-Star twice in this young career.
Rodríguez and the Mariners, having taken three out of four on the road against the Royals, will visit the Houston Astros for a three-game set that gets underway Friday. First pitch for the series opener is scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET.
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