Julio Rodríguez homers twice, but Seattle Mariners come up short in 7-6 loss to Royals

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SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - MAY 01: Salvador Perez #13 of the Kansas City Royals celebrates after scoring during the eighth inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park on May 01, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / Getty Images)

SEATTLE - Julio Rodríguez homered twice and drove in four runs, but Lane Thomas' pinch-hit single in the seventh inning scored Salvador Perez to give the Kansas City Royals a 7-6 win over the Seattle Mariners on Friday night.

Rodríguez's two-run blast in the bottom of the seventh inning tied the game at 6-6, but the Royals managed to plate the winning run against José Ferrer in the eighth as Lucas Erceg pitched a clean ninth for the save.

The Royals jumped on Seattle starter Bryan Woo immediately with four straight hits in the first inning before the first out of the game was recorded. Three straight singles from Maikel Garcia, Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino scored a run, and a double from Salvador Perez drove in two to give the Royals a 3-0 lead. A two-out double from Isaac Collins pushed the lead to four before Woo could get out of the inning.

After Collins' double, Woo would retire 13 consecutive batters through the end of the fifth inning, though several were ‘loud outs’ on hard-hit balls.

Rodríguez led the comeback efforts for the Mariners with his first homer of the night in the bottom of the inning. Rodríguez crushed a changeup from Kansas City starter Cole Ragans into the upper deck in left field for a two-run blast that got the Mariners on the board.

Connor Joe's first home run as a Mariner came in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut the lead to just one, 4-3. Joe hammered a looping curveball from Ragans deep to left as Seattle continued to chip away at the lead.

However, Pasquantino snapped Woo's streak with a solo home run to open the sixth inning, and Jac Caglianone tagged Woo for a solo shot as well to give the Royals a 6-3 lead.

Woo finished the night with six runs allowed on seven hits with no walks and just two strikeouts. It was the second straight shaky start for Woo, who allowed seven runs on nine hits over three innings last week against the St. Louis Cardinals. Woo has now allowed 13 runs overall and six home runs over his last two outings.

Randy Arozarena delivered the third home run of the night against Ragans, a solo home run just over the right field fence with one out in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-4 and ended Ragans' night. He allowed four runs on four hits with three walks and eight strikeouts for Kansas City.

Rodríguez's second blast of the night, a laser to center off left-hander Daniel Lynch IV in the seventh inning, tied the game at 6-6.

But the Royals answered yet again to pull back ahead.

Perez drove a lead-off double into the left-center field gap off José Ferrer and he came around to score on a flared single to center from Thomas to give Kansas City a 7-6 lead.

Despite giving up Rodríguez's second home run, Lynch earned the victory in relief for the Royals.

What's next:

RHP Emerson Hancock (2-1, 2.86 ERA) will make the start on Saturday for the Mariners as RHP Seth Lugo (1-1, 2.63 ERA) will go for the Royals.

The Mariners are retiring the No. 51 in honor of Hall of Fame pitcher Randy Johnson before the game.

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