Seattle Mariners: 3 moments that sparked Kyle Lewis’ ROY

The young Mariners rookie Kyle Lewis hits a towering home run off of Justin Verlander in his first at-bat of the 2020 season

The Seattle Mariners opened the 2020 season in Houston at Minute Maid Park on July 24th after a prolonged schedule shift due to the pandemic. The team had a tough pitching matchup to start off the season by facing two-time Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander.

As fans were excited to see what baseball would look like during the abnormal MLB regular season, Lewis took Verlander deep in his first at-bat of 2020. At the top of the second inning, Lewis stepped into the batter’s box to lead off the inning. After taking the first pitch for a ball, Lewis went after a fastball at the top of the zone. Lewis made contact with a 95mph fastball which he absolutely crushed.

The exit velocity on the home run was a whopping 111mph. As you could imagine, the whole league was put on notice that the prospect out of Seattle was no joke. The moonshot was posted on several social media accounts around the league, so it was not only news to the Mariners fanbase. This home run was an important start to Lewis’ ROY campaign, as he entered his name into the mix as early as he could on Opening Day.

Former Mercer University standout Kyle Lewis’ six straight multi-hit games

After his home run heard around the world, Lewis would continue campaigning for AL ROY with six straight multi-hit games. Starting on July 26th, just two days after Opening Day, Lewis recorded two hits against the Astros. One of those hits was a tiebreaking single that drove in two runs in the top of the eighth inning to lead the Mariners to a 7-6 victory, the first Seattle win of the season.

Lewis would continue his multi-hit streak until July 31st. He recorded 13 hits during the six-game streak. Kyle was close to tying Ichiro Suzuki’s multi-hit game streak as a rookie in 2001. Ichiro had seven straight multi-hit games during his AL ROY, and MVP season.

Not only did he record six straight multi-hit games, but Lewis was also hot in general to start off the season. The Verlander home run must have given him a lot of confidence. As the tweet says, Lewis was hitting .455 at the end of July. He also had two home runs and eight RBIs going into August.

Lewis would continue playing well in August, particularly during the first half of the month. He finished August with a .286 batting average, .883 OPS, six home runs, and 13 RBIs. It was a little concerning that his RBIs were low, but that had to do with some of the other players struggling to get on base for him.

Lewis would start to lose a little traction and hype as August came to a close, but he would have a highlight in September which brought him back to the top of the ROY conversation.

Mariners’ Kyle Lewis boosts his ROY odds after making one of the plays of the year in September

On September 14th, when Kyle Lewis was struggling with his offense and losing some traction in the ROY campaign, he made the best play of the season in 2020. Lewis was hot in the first half of the season but quickly dropped off in September. Luckily, Luis Robert also struggled offensively at the same time as Lewis.

Out of nowhere, Lewis was able to regain his hype after robbing Ramon Laureano. On an extremely hazy day in Seattle due to local wildfires, the Oakland Athletics got to the Seattle starting pitcher early and loaded the bases in the top of the first inning. Ramon Laureano came up to the plate with two outs and took a 0-1 hanging curveball out to the center-field wall by the Jimmy John’s advertisement.

Lewis got a great read on the ball, made his way to the fence, and made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Laureano of a grand slam. It was not a wall scraper, so Lewis had to time his leap with perfection. Watching replays of it reminds me of so many Mariners outfielders who have robbed home runs in Safeco Field back in the day.

https://twitter.com/Mariners/status/1305664515699142657?s=20

Some compared Lewis’ grab to Ken Griffey Jr’s home run robberies which he seemed to do on a regular basis. Lewis made the catch look so easy and due to his athleticism. His catch also reminded me of another great Mariners center fielder, Mike Cameron.

All in all, congratulations to Kyle Lewis who deservingly won the AL Rookie of the Year. The Mariners have waited a long time to hit the jackpot on a draft pick and Lewis has been everything we have asked for. As the first Mariners player to win AL Rookie of the Year since Ichiro in 2001, Lewis proved he can be the offensive spark while also doing his part on defense.

There is a lot to look forward to after seeing what Lewis and his teammates are capable of: J.P. Crawford and Evan White won their first Gold Glove Awards, Marco Gonzales pitched like an All-Star, and Justus Sheffield had a big bounce-back season. General manager, Jerry Dipoto was also able to acquire some talented players through trades at the deadline to bolster the young core for 2021 and beyond.