By Erwin Quinonez
Aug 27, 2023, 14:42 PM EDT
The impressive recovery that the Seattle Mariners have had in the month of August, has had as a key factor the offensive awakening of the Dominican Julio Rodríguez, something that has also led him to break some franchise records, including one established by his compatriot Alex Rodriguez.
And it is that this Saturday, ‘J-Rod’ became the Mariners player who reached 50 home runs the fastest in the Major Leagues, a title that until this weekend was held by the former player who also wore the uniform of the New York Yankees.
The 22-year-old outfielder hit a gruesome two-run shot in the fifth inning of Seattle’s 15-2 rout of the Kansas City Royals, his 256th MLB game, while ‘A-Rod’ needed 269 meetings to add half a hundred home runs.
Julio Rodríguez and Ronald Acuña Jr., historic MLB
But it is that the milestones of the star player from Seattle did not stop there, since this home run together with the stolen bases that he achieved between last season (25) and the current one (35), made him join the Venezuelan Ronald Acuña Jr. as the only players in AL/NL history to have 50 HR and 50 BR in their first two MLB seasons.
When asked about the records he’s setting in his young career, Rodriguez let it be known that he’s only focused on helping his team reach the postseason for the second year in a row.
“Honestly, that’s not my main focus, I’m just happy that I was able to contribute to the team and that I was able to hit all those home runs and help the team win all this time. But we are going to move on ”, he specified.
The great performance of the Mariners in August with a record of 18-5, has led the team to catapult from first place in the West Division of the American League, which also saw the debacle of the Texas Rangers, who lost seven games in a row. Both teams entered this Sunday sharing the division lead.
It should be remembered that at the beginning of this month, Julio Rodríguez had affirmed that the Seattle team was not yet on and now we realize that he was right, but the question also arises, are they now?
“We are not on yet. I’m going to keep saying it: We are not on fire. We are only playing the baseball that we are capable of playing,” he had said.
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