Mariners News: Cal Raleigh, Victor Robles, and Julio Rodriguez
The Mariners have been handing out doses of chaos ball lately, with Julio Rodriguez turning it on in the Rangers series
The Mariners aren't giving up, even if it looked like they wanted to in July and August. Once again, we saw the Mariners comeback late against the Rangers to get a 5-4 win for the second game in a row. It's actually been the score of every game in the series, with the Rangers winning the first game and the Mariners taking the next two.
The Mariners tied a couple of records in this series and we will start with the ones surrounding Cal Raleigh. For just the second time in franchise history, the Mariners saw their catcher walk 4 times in a game.
Raleigh is having a fantastic season, cracking a 4 WAR for the first time. Between the power he brings to the table and the defensive prowess, he's one of the most complete catchers in baseball. He also threw out his 25th runner of the season, and is looking to be the first catcher since Gary Carter in 1982-1983 to lead the league in back-to-back seasons.
Ever since coming to the Mariners, all Victor Robles has done is produce. He had two more doubles last night to go with two more steals, and has 16 and 21 respectively since joining the team. He did them at the perfect time last night as well, ripping a double down the line with one out in the 9th. He then stole third, giving the Mariners a runner 90 feet away with one out. Julio and Cal would walk (the one that gave him the tie with Valle), setting the stage for Arozarena to rip the ball to SS, bouncing off his glove and giving the Mariners the walkoff win.
Speaking of Julio, he is turning it on exactly when the Mariners needed it. You can see from the graphic above that he had a hit in 6 straight ABs, and two of them were just massive monster homers. The one in Friday's game gave the Mariners the 5-4 lead, and was a 111.7 mph 419 foot blast... which was only his third hardest hit ball of the day. The homer on Saturday went even further as it travelled an impressive 446 feet DEEP into the upper deck.
Julio, Cal, and Robles are playing some great ball on both sides of the field and are a big part of why the Mariners are making a push for that final WC spot. They're only 2.5 games back of the Twins, and are still within striking distance of the Astros if they can keep the pressure on them.