Julio Rodriguez homers twice; Mariners beat Rangers to stay in thick of wild-card race

ARLINGTON, Texas — They did what they had to do to start their final road trip of the season.

The Mariners, still, need help elsewhere, and they’re well aware of that.

“I’ve never scoreboard watched more during a game than I have in recent days,” Mariners third baseman Josh Rojas said. “It makes the whole thing fun, and I think everybody’s enjoying it.”

There was a lot to enjoy from the Mariners’ perspective in their 8-2 romp of the Texas Rangers on Friday night before a crowd of 33,387 inside Globe Life Field.

Rojas homered off Texas starter Jacob deGrom early, Julio Rodriguez had his first multihomer game of the season, and the Mariners pounded out 10 hits to continue their offensive resurgence over the past month.

George Kirby added his second strong start against the Rangers in five days, and the Mariners improved 53-4 when scoring at least five runs.

At 79-75 overall, and with eight games remaining, the Mariners remain a longshot to sneak into the postseason … but there is hope.

They’ve won two in a row to stay within striking distance in the American League wild-card standings, and there is a growing belief in the Mariners clubhouse that they can make one last surge in the last week of the season.

“I feel like right now we’re playing as a whole, and I feel like you can see that,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like we can take on any team and compete with them and give them a run for their money.”

The Detroit Tigers (80-74) lost in Baltimore — as the Mariners would have seen on the out-of-town scoreboard — nudging Seattle closer to one of the two teams they’re chasing for the third and final wild-card spot.

The Minnesota Twins (81-73), however, pulled out a win in Boston in 12 innings Friday night, keeping the Mariners two games back for that third wild card. (The Twins and Tigers also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Mariners.)

The Mariners need look no further than across the diamond this weekend for an example of a team that made a late surge into the playoffs.

The 2023 Rangers had a healthy lead in the AL West in mid-June last season, stumbled into September, then sneaked in as a wild-card team on the penultimate day of the season — and then went on to win the World Series.

The Mariners would (obviously) love to follow a similar script over the next week.

“We all feel that we’re more than capable of doing it,” Rojas said. “We have a really good team. We have a team that’s capable of doing it, and we’ve just got to give ourselves a shot and win ballgames.”

Rojas’ third-inning home run off deGrom got the Mariners on the board first Friday. Rojas turned on a 96-mph fastball — low and in — and sent it 390 feet out to right field for his eighth homer of the season.

Kirby had allowed only one base runner in seven dominant innings against the Rangers on Sunday in Seattle.

He followed that up with six sharp innings Friday night. He only ran into real trouble in the fourth inning, allowing a two-run single to Nathaniel Lowe to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

The Mariners answered right back in the fifth.

J.P. Crawford singled off Rangers rookie Jack Leiter and Victor Robles reached on an error when he dropped a bunt toward third base.

Rodriguez then jumped on an 0-1 curveball from Leiter down in the zone and hit it well out to left field — 107 mph off the bat and 398 feet out.

At 4-2, that gave the Mariners the lead for good.

“Julio came up huge today,” Kirby said.

In his next at-bat, Rodriguez hit his second homer in the seventh, sending an elevated 96-mph fastball from Leiter the other way, 355 feet out to right.

It was Rodriguez’s first multihomer game of the season, fourth of his career. His five RBI were a season high and matched his career high.

“It’s coming off his bat, really, really well, whether it’s the left field or the right field,” manager Dan Wilson said. “We’ve seen all that before, and when you’re in that kind of a place as a hitter, you’re dangerous. So that’s a good spot for us, and hope that just continues.”

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Rojas and Robles had back-to-back sac flies in the eighth inning to make it 8-2.

The margin allowed Wilson to turn to Trent Thornton, JT Chargois and Eduard Bazardo for three scoreless innings out of the bullpen, giving his high-leverage arms a much-needed day of rest.

Robles was back at the top of the lineup Friday after missing most of the last three games against the Yankees after being hit by a pitch on his right hand.

He made his presence felt with a bunt single in the third — on an 0-2 count from deGrom — plus another single and the sac fly RBI.

“Vic’s always making something happen,” Kirby said. “He’s been incredible.”

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