Julio Rodríguez: ALCS loss ‘made this team hungrier’

After the Seattle Mariners’ playoff run came to an end in heartbreaking fashion with a loss in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, Bryan Woo answered questions as he stood near his locker.

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When Woo was asked what he felt the legacy of the team was going to be, a sudden, visceral scream came from another part of the locker room.

The loud yell in the background of what would be a viral clip came from center fielder Julio Rodríguez, who like his teammates was trying to process what just transpired on the field.

It turns out it was a cathartic moment for the 25-year-old star.

Four months later, Rodríguez addressed what led to the moment with Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“We all wanted to win. We all felt like we had enough to win,” Rodríguez said. “There was a lot of rage and frustration. But after that, there was a lot of release, and then I started thinking about the positive things that happened in the year and a lot of things that we can build on as a really young and a good group of baseball players that we have here on the team. So I just feel like I needed to have that moment to be able to actually see the clear picture of it.”

“Sometimes you just gotta let it go. You can’t be holding so much inside,” he added.

The pain of that Game 7 loss lingered through the offseason for many, but Rodríguez did his best to let it go.

“I didn’t have the rage, but it was kind of like a dull moment. Like, there was not a whole lot of emotion surrounding that, but there was kind of contemplation of it,” Rodríguez said on if the loss lingered. “Now, I definitely know that it happened, but I’m not holding that really on me. I feel like I just wanna get to the field, be able to reset this year and just go out there and see what we can do as a team now. Because at the end of the day, whatever happened, happened. We ended up losing in the Game 7, that’s just what it was.”

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Ultimately, Rodríguez sees last year’s heartbreak as a motivating factor for this year’s group, which features many who were with the club last October.

“Once you get a taste of that – what an actual playoff is – and you experience it as a team, I feel like you just get addicted to it,” Rodríguez said. “Like, that’s the best baseball that you can play. And once you actually put stats and numbers and years aside and you just play baseball, really like the pure game of baseball as a team, that gets addicting, at least for me.

“Being able to be so close to something so special as a group, I think it really made this team hungrier.”

Listen to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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