'It's historical': J-Rod has another 4-hit game, HR
SEATTLE — At some point, the torrid August that Julio Rodríguez has put together will quiet down. For now, the Seattle Mariners are going to enjoy the ride their young superstar is taking them on.
Rodríguez remained sizzling at the plate with four more hits — including a two-run homer and an RBI double — in the Mariners’ 7-0 win over the Oakland Athletics on Monday night.
Seattle has won four straight and 12 of 13, as the hottest team in baseball kept rolling behind its suddenly unstoppable offense. The Mariners have 20 wins in August, matching the most in a month in franchise history with two games remaining.
“It’s really good. I feel like everybody is playing like we all know we could,” Rodríguez said. “It’s been really good seeing everybody having fun, seeing everybody getting good at-bats and getting on base and passing the baton, and getting the big hits when we need them.”
No one is getting more of those hits than Rodríguez right now. He extended his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games and homered for the third straight game. During his streak, Rodríguez is batting .516 (32-for-62) with five homers, six doubles and 21 RBIs.
In his past 10 games, Rodríguez has 28 hits — the most by any player in a 10-game span since Kenny Lofton had 28 from April 10 to April 22 in 1997. That includes five games of at least four hits. According to Elias Sports Bureau research, Rodríguez is the only player since 1900 with five four-hit games in a 10-game span.
“What we’re watching, really, it’s historical,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “As crazy to say that for a player that is that young, but to do what he is doing and for the span he’s done it for now … that’s ridiculous.”
With his four hits Monday, Rodríguez now has 153 on the season, passing Toronto‘s Bo Bichette for the AL lead.
Seattle scored at least six runs for the 12th time in 18 games, and while most of the lineup contributed it was the top of the order doing most of the damage against the lowly A’s.
Rodríguez scorched a 112 mph double in the third inning to score J.P. Crawford from first base and hit his 24th homer, a 420-foot drive in the fourth inning. For good measure, Rodríguez beat out a pair of infield grounders for hits in the sixth and eighth.
“I wish I could run as fast as Julio Rodríguez. This has got to be a really fun game when you’re that fast,” Servais joked.
Monday marked the second time in the past 12 days that Rodríguez had a four-hit game with two extra-base hits and two infield hits. He is the only player with multiple such games in a year over the past 20 seasons, and the only Mariners player with even one such game over that span.
Seattle won 20 games in a month for the seventh time, the first since the 2001 season when the Mariners won a record-tying 116 games. Seattle won 20 games in a month four times that season.
The Associated Press and ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report.
