After 2nd-half tear, Julio shining on the October stage

Oct 5, 2025, 10:39 PM | Updated: Oct 6, 2025, 1:45 am

Seattle Sports

SEATTLE – Over the course of his young career, Julio Rodríguez has become known for heating up around the All-Star break and unleashing a red-hot surge over the second half of the season.

Mariners’ key bats deliver in 3-2 win over Tigers in Game 2

At this rate, the 24-year-old Seattle Mariners superstar may soon become known for something else.

Big-time moments in October.

In Game 1 of the American League Division Series on Saturday night, Rodríguez homered and drove in both of the Mariners’ runs in their 3-2 extra-inning loss to the Detroit Tigers.

And in Game 2 on Sunday night, Rodríguez delivered the deciding blow with a tiebreaking RBI double in the eighth inning that propelled Seattle to a pivotal 3-2 bounceback win.

“He’s the same guy, you know?” Mariners teammate Jorge Polanco said of Rodríguez’s roaring start to the postseason.

“He’s Julio. He’s always prepared for the moment, he wants the big moment and he can deliver. … We all love the way he goes about his business.”

On Sunday night, the Tigers temporarily sucked the air out of an electric T-Mobile Park crowd when Spencer Torkelson snuck a two-run double down the right-field line that evened the score at 2-2 in the top of the eighth.

But in the bottom half of the frame, the Mariners’ two biggest stars answered right back.

MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh set the table, re-energizing the home crowd by lining a one-out double into the right-field corner off right-handed reliever Kyle Finnegan.

Two pitches later, Rodríguez delivered one of the biggest hits in recent franchise history.

After laying off a first-pitch splitter from Finnegan, Rodríguez got another splitter and lined it into the left-field corner to bring home Raleigh and send the T-Mobile Park crowd into a fever pitch.

“It was awesome,” Rodríguez said. “It was awesome. These are things I dreamed of as a kid.”

Rodríguez’s RBI double was the third go-ahead hit in the eighth inning or later in postseason franchise history.

And it potentially helped save the Mariners from a devastating 0-2 hole in the best-of-five series.

“In games like this, I feel like any situation is clutch,” Rodríguez said. “You can win a game in the first three innings of the game, in the middle of the game or late in the game, because every single run matters.”

As he’s done since entering the big leagues in 2022, Rodríguez again found his stride at the midway point this season.

From July 11 through the end of September, Rodríguez tied for sixth in the majors in home runs (21) and was sixth in slugging percentage (.598), seventh in OPS (.954) and 15th in batting average (.299), according to FanGraphs.

Rodríguez has ridden that momentum right into the postseason. Two games into the ALDS, he’s 4 for 9 with a 413-foot solo homer, an RBI single and a decisive eighth-inning RBI double.

“The second half that Julio had (was) tremendous, and we’ve seen these great at-bats all along in the second half,” Mariners manager Dan Wilson said.

“And I think his maturity that he has experienced throughout the season has really paid off, and we saw it tonight. … To stay in that moment, to not try to do too much, that says so much about Julio and what he has done for us all season.”