Julio Rodriguez homers, Mariners snap four-game losing streak

SEATTLE – Everything about the unofficial start to summer in Seattle screamed for the Mariners being swept at home and the losing to continue.

Already mired in a two-week stretch of miserable baseball, featuring offensive production that somehow devolved from awful to embarrassing, the Mariners had to figure out a way to scratch out runs, or even a run, against Orioles ace Corbin Burnes in the finale of a three-game series, while keeping one of the best offenses in baseball under four runs to allow themselves the hope of a win.

It wasn’t exactly an ideal equation for success. Given the circumstances, a dreary day of rain and gray might have been a more fitting setting for Fourth of July at T-Mobile Park.

Instead, Thursday afternoon brought bright sunshine, cloudless skies and shirt-sleeve weather – perfect conditions for unexpected results and unlikely outcomes.

For at least a day, the Mariners interrupted their struggles at the plate, stopped their two-week slide and maintained their lead in the American League West, pulling out a 7-3 victory over Baltimore, which came into the day with the best record in the American League.

Less than 24 hours after the Mariners were serenaded with boos for looking listless and lifeless in a 4-1 loss to Baltimore, a crowd of 32,347 rewarded them with a standing ovation when Andres Munoz secured the final out of a much-needed victory.

“Happy Fourth of July,” M’s manager Scott Servais said . “Great baseball game. We talk about it often here with how we do it. It’s winning late with the timely hit. You create traffic, put some pressure on them and we were able to bust through. A heck of job by our group grinding through it and hopefully we can build off this.”

The victory was needed to snap and three-game sweep and hold off the hard-charging Astros, but it was how the Mariners won, who was responsible for it, that may be vital for future success.

The M’s got resurgent performances from stalwarts Julio Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford, who have both failed to perform to up their own lofty expectations for much of this season.

“Sometimes you gotta go through tough stretches to wake the hell up,” Rodriguez said.

With the Mariners trailing 2-0 and having only registered one for the first four innings, Rodriguez led off the fifth with a solo homer off Burnes to provide a jolt of excitement and energy to the fans and his teammates.

Down 0-2 on two pitches, Rodriguez stayed on a 96-mph cutter on the lower inside part of the strike zone, sending a 428-foot blast into center-field side of the T-Mobile ’Pen.

“That’s an 0-2 pitch,” Servais said. “He’s just trying to get the ball in play. That’s how talented he is, just getting the barrel there and then the ball jumps off the bat the way it does.”

The emotion – a mixture of anger and joy – poured from Rodriguez as he rounded the bases and hoisted the team’s trident in front of the dugout. It was his first extra-base hit and RBI since he homered on June 15 against Texas.

“I just feel like a lot of people misunderstand my edge with how I play the game,” Rodriguez said. “I feel I just go out there and give my everything. That’s my playing style. A lot of people might get mistaken, but sometimes you’ve got to remind them.”

Rodriguez came into the game with just six hits – all singles – in his past 55 plate appearances with two walks and 13 strikeouts. It had reached the point where the Mariners brought in his personal hitting coach Ovi Diaz to help him relocate his swing. Not that Rodriguez would discuss what looked like his best swing of the season.

“Do not ask me about my swing,” he said.

The swing he doesn’t want to talk about produced one of the hardest-hit balls of his season to start the seventh. Facing right-hander Bryan Baker, Rodriguez turned a 98-mph fastball into a screaming line drive into the gap in left-center. The ball had an exit velocity of 113 mph and went for his first double since June 9.

“It’s best feeling,” Rodriguez said. “We all work to get that feeling, We work to go out there and square up balls. So any time you can get to that fastball, whatever that pitch is, it definitely feels really rewarding.”

Bogged down by trying to correct past failures and thoughts of fixing what was broken with his swing and approach, Rodriguez decided to go back to the basics.

“I was just out there competing,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking about my swing or what happened in the past two months. You can’t do anything to change the past. The only thing you can control is right now. Just going out there competing … kind of how I started playing this game.”

Seattle added Crawford’s bases-clearing double and Mitch Garver’s two-run homer in the seventh.

The Mariners would load the bases with one out, thanks to walks drawn by Ty France and Mitch Haniger. When Ryan Bliss struck out on three pitches, it looked like the Mariners might squander a prime opportunity to break a 2-2 tie. With Crawford coming to the plate, the Orioles went to lefty Keegan Akin.

Crawford worked a 3-0 count, refusing to chase two borderline pitches. After watching a 3-0 strike, he hammered a 93-mph fastball into right-center for a bases-clearing double.

“All I tell myself is I’m going to get the damn job done,” Crawford said. “That’s all I’m thinking about going to the plate and it’s all I’m thinking about in the box. Get a pitch and don’t miss.”

He’s gotten the job done with bases loaded quite often. Since 2023, Crawford is 14 for 23 (.636) with the bases loaded, including four doubles, a triple, three grand slams and 37 RBI.

The Mariners tacked on two more runs when Mitch Garver deposited his 11th homer into The Pen to make it 7-2.

Bryce Miller gave the Mariners a workable outing. He pitched 5 2/3 outings, allowing two runs on eight hits with a walk and six strikeouts. It was an improvement considering the Orioles scored four runs off him before he could record an out the last time he faced them.

Servais used five Austin Voth to finish the sixth inning with Ryne Stanek, Trent Thornton and Munoz each working an inning.

The Mariners pitching held Baltimore to a combined runs eight runs in three games with the bullpen allowing just one run – Jordan Westburg’s solo homer off Thornton in the eighth inning – in the entire series.

“In my opinion, that’s probably the best top-to-bottom offensive team in the league this year,” Servais said. “Our bullpen only gave up one run all series that was the late homer and our starters kept us in every game.”