Rodríguez stars in snap of 4-game slide
WASHINGTON — Julio Rodríguez homered and drove in four runs, and the Seattle Mariners snapped a four-game losing streak with a 9-5 win against the Washington Nationals on Sunday.
Ty France hit a two-run homer and singled home the go-ahead run for Seattle, which finished 4-6 on an East Coast trip.
With Seattle trailing 5-4, J.P. Crawford doubled leading off the eighth against Dylan Floro (1-1). Crawford took third on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out single by Rodríguez, snapping Floro’s 22inning scoreless streak.
“Huge game by Julio,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Really happy for him. Everybody’s happy to see it. That’s the Julio Rodríguez we’ve grown to know over the last couple of years and hopefully he can keep that going. That’s the best he’s looked all year.”
Rodríguez stole second and scored when France grounded a single to right. Rodríguez also capped Seattle’s three-run ninth with an opposite-field single that drove in two runs.
Austin Voth (2-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win for Seattle, which hosts the Astros in a series that starts Monday.
Washington had jumped in front with four runs in the seventh, highlighted by CJ Abrams’ three-run homer off the right-field foul pole against Ryne Stanek.
Joey Gallo also went deep for Washington, which completed a 3-3 homestand.
After managing just two runs in its previous three games, Seattle scored three in the fourth against Patrick Corbin.
Rodríguez, who snapped an 0-for-15 skid with a home run on Saturday, hit a leadoff drive to left-center. After Mitch Garver walked, France hit a two-run shot to left.
Gallo made it 4-1 with his two-out homer in the fifth.
Washington had the tying run at the plate in the sixth when Luis García Jr. hit a foul fly down the left field line. Jonatan Clase raced over to try to make a play, but a fan reached over the railing and caught the ball.
García was ruled out due to fan interference, and the call was upheld after a challenge by the Nationals.
“He had a Julio Rodríguez jersey on and I give him credit there,” Servais said. “I don’t know if Clase would have been able to be able to catch it. He certainly looked like he was going to catch it. My first reaction was ‘That’s fan interference,’ and I was like kind of ticked about it and then I saw he had a Julio jersey on and I said ‘Hey, nice job.’ He helped us out. We’ll take it.”
Seattle right-hander Bryan Woo allowed three runs and five hits over sixplus innings. It was this first time in four starts this season that he allowed more than one run.