Randy, again! On heels of legendary game, Arozarena leads off with another HR

SEATTLE -- The statistical superlatives for Randy Arozarena on Sunday went on and on, and the numbers told a distinct story:

He’s on a heater of historic precedent.

One day after the most epic game of his Mariners career, Arozarena crushed a leadoff homer in Seattle’s series finale against the Cubs -- sitting on a 2-2 splitter from left-hander Shota Imanaga and sending it into the visiting bullpen at T-Mobile Park.

It was the 20th deep fly of his All-Star season, which -- coupled with his 20 stolen bases -- clinched his sixth straight 20-20 season.

If that sounds exceptional, it is.

Arozarena joined Barry Bonds (nine straight 20-20 seasons), Bobby Bonds (seven), Bobby Abreu (seven) and Willie Mays (six) as the only players with a streak that long. There is a slight caveat on Cleveland’s José Ramírez, who’s done so in every full season since 2018 but did not in the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, which was limited to just 60 games for each club.

But the notable numbers on Randy didn’t stop there.

Arozarena also became just the 14th player since at least 1900 with a leadoff homer in the next team game after he hit a walk-off homer, following his heroics in Saturday’s thriller. In that one, he cleared the fence on the very first and last pitch that the Mariners saw -- and for good measure, he also robbed a homer from Chicago’s Miguel Amaya.

But we’re not done.

Making this weekend’s feats even more rare, Arozarena became just the second player ever with two leadoff homers and a walk-off homer in a two-game team span -- joining Chicago’s Pete Crow-Armstrong, who did so from this past Monday and Tuesday, and whom the Mariners were playing against this weekend.

Baseball, amirite?

Wilder yet is that if not for a random accident for Brendan Donovan just 24 hours earlier, Arozarena wouldn’t have hit leadoff on Saturday -- and probably not on Sunday, either.

Donovan, the Mariners’ primary leadoff man, suffered a concussion after taking a baseball off his head in the batting cages just moments before first pitch on Saturday. That moved Arozarena up from the No. 2 spot in the order; on Sunday, Donovan was placed on the 7-day concussion injured list, keeping Arozarena in the one-hole.

Maybe manager Dan Wilson will ride the hot hand for the next week as Donovan recovers, because it sure seems to be paying off.