I haven’t seen this much buzz over a Seattle Mariners’ player since Ichiro.
I’m old enough to remember the hype over Ken Griffey Jr. and later Alex Rodriguez, though his tenure in Seattle was short-lived. Really, it was Griffey that brought the Mariners alive. Seattle had a handful of good players through the 1980s, but most of the good players that came up in Seattle ended up better playing for other teams — Mark Langston and Mike Moore are a couple of good examples.
It was a moribund franchise, playing in a dead-quiet Kingdome. I’m amazed the team managed to stick around. Griffey had a lot to do with that, maybe everything to do with it.
Then came along Ichiro Suzuki, and it was Ken Griffey Jr. all over again. The whole of the Pacific Northwest had “Ichiro-mania.”
Now, we have Julio Rodriguez. And he’s part of a huge resurgence in Seattle baseball.
I’ll be honest, I’ve been saying all year that I didn’t expect the Mariners to win as many games as they did last year. The 2021 team just wasn’t that good. They were dead last in all of baseball in batting average (.226). They got outscored over the course of the season by more than 50 runs. Simply put, they got lucky. They won a ton of one-run games and a ton of games in the team’s final at-bat. That kind of luck simply isn’t sustainable. To win in the long run, you have to win with brute math. You can’t lose all your games 11-0 and win all of them 5-4 and expect to make the postseason. You have to score more runs than your opponents, and you have to do it consistently. I figured they’d probably be better this year, but win about 75 to 80 games.
For most of the first half of the season, I looked like a genius. The Mariners’ numbers were better this year and yet they were muddling along several games below .500. Exactly as I expected.
Then Rodriguez got hot. And then came the 14-game winning streak. And suddenly, the Mariners are making me look stupid.
It feels like Ichiro and the 116-win 2001 Mariners all over again.
Could this be the year the Mariners finally break their 20-year postseason drought? The longest drought in professional sports? The Cleveland Browns have been to the postseason during that time … twice. That’s just how awful the drought has been. A drought that featured a veritable who’s who of the Suicide Squad of Baseball — Richie Sexson, Chone Figgins, Jean Segura, Milton Bradley and Carl Everett. They weren’t just bad, they were unlikable.
It was a stretch that wasted the bulk of Ichiro’s career. That wasted what should have been a Hall of Fame career by Hernandez.
Rodriguez has been a revelation. He’s already better than the Mariners could have hoped for. Rodriguez hasn’t just become the best player for the Mariners, he’s quickly turned into one of the best players in all of baseball. He’s got 16 home runs and 21 stolen bases at the All-Star break, on pace for a 30-homer, 40-steal season. He’s on pace for 100 RBIs, 100 runs and 35 doubles.
I don’t know if he will reach those kind of numbers, but he’s already been named Rookie of the Month twice and a Rookie of the Year award is pretty much already assured. He even put on an electric show during the All-Star home run derby. No one else is even all that close to ROY, honestly.
And if the season ended today, the Mariners would be in the postseason. Again, a late-season swoon is always possible. I fully expected a swoon last year and it never came. The Mariners just kept lucking their way into wins. That’s something this team already appears to have down. It knows how to win. Even the games that the Mariners have no business winning.
If they make the postseason or not, enjoy it while you can. Every game at T-Mobile will be packed down the stretch and every game will feel like a playoff game. It’s been a while since the Mariners have had a late summer run this much fun.
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Sports Editor Pierre LaBossiere can be contacted at plabossiere@ peninsuladailynews.com.
