SEATTLE -- They’re slugging it in Seattle, and unlike this region has seen in quite some time.
The Mariners ran away to an 8-3 victory over the Mets on Tuesday night that extended their season-best win streak to eight games. And they did so by breaking out the bats -- again -- with another three homers that brought their tally to 21 since their last loss on May 24.
If that sounds noteworthy, it is.
No team has hit that many homers in an eight-game stretch all season, and only three did last year (the Yankees, Cubs and Angels).
Moreover, the Mariners haven’t had a homer surge like this since 2019, a year that saw a proliferation of power across the sport. Before that, though, Seattle’s most recent such run with this many homers in this few games was in 1999.
Taking it even further, of all the previous eight-game, 21-homer stretches in franchise history, the Mariners weren’t winning the way they are now -- having advanced to four games above .500 (33-29) for the first time this season.
During this win streak, they swept the team they passed atop the American League West (Athletics) and a National League contender (D-backs), and they have the chance to go for another sweep against the club with the sport’s second-highest payroll (Mets).
"You can't ever let your guard down and think everything is perfect,” said Logan Gilbert, who gave up three runs over 5 1/3 innings. “We're playing really well, and we've got to do everything we can to keep it going. But I think just both sides of the ball, everybody is doing their job.”
Julio Rodríguez punctuated the power on Tuesday with a sky-high solo shot in the sixth inning that hung for 6.6 seconds and traveled a Statcast-projected 396 feet. It was his 13th of the season and continued the best start to a season of his career that should have him on the cusp of his fourth All-Star selection.
But it was the unsung guys who put in the early elbow grease to give the club a commanding lead to put this one out of reach. Injury fill-ins Patrick Wisdom (taking over for first baseman Josh Naylor) and Jhonny Pereda (for Cal Raleigh) went deep in the second and fifth innings, respectively.
And therein lies what makes this stretch even more substantial, as Wisdom and Pereda became the 10th and 11th different players to homer during this win streak. Pereda’s big moment came in the at-bat of the night, after a nine-pitch battle with Mets right-hander Jonah Tong.
Basically, they’re getting contributions from everybody.
"That's what good teams do when they have guys that are injured,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said. “They find a way to step up and fill the moment, and I think they do that by not trying to do too much.”
Over their past eight games, the Mariners are slugging .551 -- that trails only the Dodgers’ .557 in that span, while averaging six runs per game, which is tied for fifth most. And 33 of those have come via the homer, for a whopping 68.8% of their total run output.
That’s way above their 52.3% rate for the season, which is by far an MLB-high (second place is the White Sox at 47.4%).
Teams don’t necessarily want to live by the long ball -- but the Mariners have also found countless other ways to win, as three of their victories during this stretch have been by one run and in extra innings. They’ve also pitched extremely well, with an MLB-best 1.92 ERA during this win streak.
“Obviously, the offense, what they're doing is crazy, so that's a huge part of it,” Gilbert said. “I feel like the bullpen has been doing amazing. The starters are doing their job. So just a little bit of everything, really.”
What’s also telling during this win streak is that Seattle has been without Raleigh, who’s been on the IL since May 14 with a right oblique strain. But he ramped up baseball activity before each of the first two games of this series, going through catching drills and sprints.
The club will have a better idea of his timeline to begin a Minor League rehab assignment when it embarks on its three-city, 10-game road trip after Wednesday’s game.
Naylor, meanwhile, suffered a back spasm on a big swing on Monday -- a homer -- though he was expected to be available off the bench. But he wasn’t needed thanks to the offense’s big cushion early.