Mariners Star Julio Rodriguez Takes High Road When Asked About Home Run Off Astros Nemesis
The Seattle Mariners beat the Houston Astros 8-1 on Wednesday afternoon to keep their extremely slim playoff hopes alive.
The M's are now 82-77 after the victory and are guaranteed a winning record for the fourth consecutive season.
In the win, M's star Julio Rodriguez made some incredible baseball history, becoming just the second player ever to have 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases in his first three seasons. He hit a home run off Astros reliever Hector Neris in the ninth inning.
The home run was historic, but it was also a nice bit of payback for an incident that happened at the end of 2023. In September of last season, Neris struck Rodriguez out at T-Mobile Park and then ran toward him, taunting him. The benches cleared and reports afterward suggested that Neris called Rodriguez a derogatory term in Spanish.
You can see that play here:
Just insane behavior, never seen it before. pic.twitter.com/U2hcn8mdVS https://t.co/DiOTaFAH5c
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) September 28, 2023
After the game, Rodriguez took the high road and didn't seem to care about settling old scores.
Per Daniel Kramer of MLB.com on social media:
Julio Rodríguez on today's rematch with Héctor Neris:
"Life is too short to be holding things on. Obviously, that's something that he understood that it was not correct to do. And we talked about it, and he apologized in-person, and it’s all good. We're grown men."
Julio Rodríguez on today's rematch with Héctor Neris:
— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) September 25, 2024
"Life is too short to be holding things on. Obviously, that's something that he understood that it was not correct to do. And we talked about it, and he apologized in-person, and it’s all good. We're grown men."
Even though it looks like the M's will not be playing in October this year, it's been a fabulous end to the season for Rodriguez. Despite all the hand-wringing about his disappointing season, he's hitting .274 with 20 homers, 67 RBI and 24 stolen bases.
He's got a .739 OPS and is hitting .326 over his last 30 games.
The Mariners will be off on Thursday before opening up a series with the Oakland Athletics on Friday night at T-Mobile Park.
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