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Seattle Mariners

Cal Raleigh homers twice, Julio Rodriguez adds another as Mariners mash Padres

Seattle’s Cal Raleigh is congratulated by Julio Rodriguez after Raleigh hit a two-run home run against the San Diego Padres during the seventh inning at Petco Park on July 9, 2024 in San Diego, California. (Getty Images)
By Ryan Divish Seattle Times

SAN DIEGO – Since they’ve shouldered the blame and accepted full responsibility of their failures for this three-week stretch of struggles and series losses, they also get to take credit for their successes and celebrate their execution. Sure, the pessimists will point out that it is only one game of production in a season filled with so many games where it was missing.

But it’s not just how or why the Mariners found production that provides hopes for better days ahead, but it is more importantly who provided it and what they mean to this team’s overall success moving forward.

Tuesday’s 8-3 victory over the Padres at Petco Park seemed like more than just a temporary respite from the Mariners’ bad baseball. It felt like a reset with opportunity for a return to their previous success.

After quad tightness forced him out of a game on Saturday and kept him out of the starting lineup on Sunday, Julio Rodriguez returned to the starting lineup in his customary spot in center field and batting cleanup. He delivered his best game of the year going 4 for 4 with a massive solo homer.

Cal Raleigh, who served as spokesman following Sunday’s loss in Seattle, leaving little doubt that the players were the root cause of the failures and the only ones who could fix it, backed up his seething self-criticism. Batting behind Rodriguez in the No. 5 spot, Raleigh smashed a pair of two-run homers – one from each side of the plate – and added a double.

The offense provided from the two stalwarts in the Mariners offense overshadowed another strong outing from Logan Gilbert, who was making his first start since being named to the American League All-Star team.

Gilbert held the Padres scoreless for the first six innings, allowing just one hit. His second hit allowed was a solo homer in the seventh to Jake Cronenworth. He surrendered a two-run homer in the eighth, which ended his outing much to his displeasure.

But he still delivered a quality start and improved to 6-5 on the season, setting the tone for the Mariners.