Julio Rodriguez stays hot in win over Texas. Can he carry Mariners to playoffs?

ARLINGTON, Texas — There’s an unmistakable sense of vitality, of verve, around every Julio Rodriguez at-bat here.

It’s permeating the Mariners dugout, stretching out onto the field and bouncing around the Globe Life Field rafters.

It’s in the air, something special.

How long can the star center fielder make it go? How far can he carry this team over the final week of the season?

Rodriguez homered on the very first pitch of the game Saturday night and added three more hits and three more RBI in an 8-4 victory over the Texas Rangers, lifting the Mariners to their third straight win and nudging them ever-so closer in the American League wild-card chase.

Rodriguez homered twice Friday and he is 7 for 11 with three homers and nine RBI in the first two games of this series.

“He’s going up there looking for blood every at-bat,” teammate J.P. Crawford said.

The Mariners (80-75) matched a season-high with 16 hits — three from Jorge Polanco and two each from Crawford, Cal Raleigh and Justin Turner — and moved within 1.5 games of the Minnesota Twins in the AL wild-card chase.

“I think there’s just a good feeling going on in here,” manager Dan Wilson said. “Guys, as a collective group, are fighting together, and there’s a lot of confidence going. They’re doing the things they need to do offensively.”

Deep into the left-field corner, Randy Arozarena chased down a Marcus Semien drive for an unlikely game-saving catch to strand the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

Arozarena made the catch and then jumped against the wall to stop his momentum, the best highlight on what has to be the best defensive game of the season for the Mariners.

“I had a good first step and ran as fast as I could because I knew that ball was [hit] pretty well,” Arozarena said through interpreter Freddy Llanos. “I knew that if that were to hit the ground, it was going to do a lot of damage. So thankfully I was able to make the catch.”

For the Mariners to navigate their way into the playoffs, it’ll take a little bit of everything.

Their starting pitching has been consistently dominant, and they got another strong performance from Emerson Hancock on Saturday in his second fill-in start for the injured Luis Castillo.

Their offense has turned a corner over the past few weeks, and they racked up 16 more hits in this one.

The bullpen, up and down for much of the season, had a couple of hiccups in the sixth inning Saturday, but there have generally been encouraging signs of late.

And their defense — well, if the Mariners somehow, someway manage to sneak into the playoffs, their defense will have played a significant part.

Particularly Saturday.

Arozarena made two artful running catches on the warning track earlier in the game, and his sixth-inning grab in the corner has to go down as his most meaningful contribution with the Mariners since his trade-deadline acquisition from Tampa Bay.

Back in the dugout, Arozarena got a playful chest bump from Perry Hill, the Mariners’ 72-year-old infield coach and defensive guru.

A moment to remember, all the way around.

“We’ve talked a lot about the little things making big differences this time of year,” Wilson said. “And when you look at the defensive plays that we’re making, clearly helping out our pitching staff, but also they’re turning into big plays. And everything gets so magnified this time of year, and so our guys are really doing it on defense and that’s been a big lift and a big reason for some of our confidence as well.”

In the seventh inning, Dylan Moore made a diving catch near the first-base line on a line drive off the bat of Nathaniel Lowe. With two runners on base, that saved at least one run, preserving the Mariners’ 5-4 lead.

“D-Mo is incredible,” Crawford said. “You could put him anywhere and he’s going to ball out.”

Tayler Saucedo made a nice play on a comeback from the next batter, Ezequiel Duran, to end the threat.

In the eighth, Austin Voth struck out Josh Smith swinging over a curveball to end the inning, stranding runners at second and third. Voth was as animated as he’s been all season after that strikeout.

In the top of the ninth, the Mariners scored three insurance runs.

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The first came in the most spectacularly wild way after Polanco doubled with one out (his third hit of the night).

Victor Robles, bothered by a sore right finger, entered as a pinch runner. After narrowly avoiding being picked off, Robles stole third — and immediately rounded third and took off for home on a wild pitch, scoring (just barely) standing up to make it 6-4.

With two outs, Rodriguez scalded a line drive to left field, driving in two more runs to make it 8-4.

Those ninth-inning insurance runs allowed the Mariners to save closer Andres Muñoz and turn instead to Eduard Bazardo to finish things off.

Hancock allowed five hits and two runs over five innings, with no walks and three strikeouts. Smith hit a two-out, two-run homer in the third inning to tie the score at 2-2.

Rodriguez drove in Moore from second to make it 3-2.

Raleigh followed with an RBI single through the right side, and Arozarena’s sharp single to left made it 5-2.

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