SEATTLE -- The day, as it is every year, was about Jackie Robinson, the imprint he left on helping break racial barriers and his legacy that still reverberates across baseball. And fittingly, the player who currently holds the American League Rookie of the Year Award that bears Robinson’s name was the lead vessel behind the Mariners’ 9-2 win over the Rockies on Saturday night.
Julio Rodríguez ripped a bases-clearing triple with two outs and two strikes in the fourth inning that helped push Seattle to a three-game win streak, its longest of this young season, while securing a series win, its second.
It was the most notable highlight in a game full of them from T-Mobile Park, as the Mariners broke out to their most dominant win in 2023.
“We've been grinding out a lot of at-bats,” Rodríguez said. “I feel like that's kind of like myself and like the mentality that we have on the team -- every time that we step in the box, it’s a battle. It’s on.”
Beyond Rodríguez, Eugenio Suárez led off the fourth with a 367-foot opposite-field homer that tied the game at 1, J.P. Crawford followed with a bases-loaded RBI knock that broke the tie, then Rodríguez followed with his emphatic three-bagger, a 106.7 mph rocket into the right-field corner that allowed him to reach standing up.
He worked a 1-2 count after fouling off two inside fastballs from the Rockies’ Ryan Feltner then ripped one middle-middle with incredible top spin that’s made his pole-to-pole power so revered. Rodríguez drove in another on a forceout as part of a four-spot in the sixth, which also saw a hit-by-pitch to Suárez and a walk to Cal Raleigh, both with the bases loaded.
“Every time they make their mistake, we've got to make them pay,” Rodríguez said. “I feel like that's where you've got to make your money because there's a lot of good [pitchers] out there and they have a lot of good control, but they're human, too, just like we are. And I feel like being ready for those mistakes is always going to lead you to much better results.”
A huge component of what drew such attention to Rodríguez en route to winning the AL Rookie of the Year -- which was named in Robinson’s honor in 1987, 40 years after he became the first ROY winner -- was that many of his biggest moments were under the most high-leverage stakes.
Saturday’s situation wasn’t nearly as dire, but it was still a one-run game and represented a huge swing moment. According to FanGraphs, it had the highest win probability added of any play in the game. And after the forceout, which was also with the bases loaded, he’s now a career .385/.467/.846 (1.313 OPS) hitter in 15 plate appearances with three on.
“Whenever the opposing team looks at our lineup, they're going to take notice of a few guys and Julio is one of them based on what he did last year and his reputation to hurt you and hit the ball out of the ballpark,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “So they are going to live on the edges, and you have to be disciplined and doing all that [so] when they do make a mistake, you have to be ready to hit -- and Julio is always ready to hit.”
On a night where Jarred Kelenic was uncharacteristically quiet -- three strikeouts, including two on three pitches, and an opposite-field single -- the Mariners showed what their offense could be when clicking, even if it was against a struggling Rockies pitching staff. They made four arms throw a whopping 173 pitches, a type of grind-it-out formula that was their specialty last season.
The efforts provided plenty of cushion for George Kirby, who joined Logan Gilbert from Wednesday with the lone outings from Seattle’s starters to pitch into the seventh.
Lingering over it all was Robinson’s legacy, with every player donning his No. 42 as they’ve done every year since 2009 after Ken Griffey Jr. pioneered the idea to do so when playing for the Mariners in 1997.
Jackie Robinson Day evokes something special every year, and in Seattle in 2023, it was in huge part from the efforts of Rodríguez.
“He opened the door for a whole lot of us,” Rodríguez said, “and that's all you can think of -- his legacy. ... That first guy, that pioneer guy that he basically broke through a door for us.”