Julio Rodríguez RBI double in 8th inning gives Seattle Mariners 3-2 win over Tigers in Game 2 of ALDS

SEATTLE - Julio Rodríguez delivered an RBI double with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning off Detroit reliever Kyle Finnegan to lift the Seattle Mariners to a key 3-2 victory over the Tigers in Game 2 of the AL Division Series.

After Cal Raleigh laced a double to the right field wall with one out off Finnegan, Rodríguez went into the left field corner to score Raleigh for the go-ahead run. Rodríguez delivered an emphatic fist-pump on his way to first base and three more when he reached second base.

"After I hit it, I just – I kind of looked around a little bit," Rodríguez said. "I could see everybody jumping around, and that made me feel really good. It was an awesome moment.

"But more importantly, you know, to come and answer back, you know, as a team, I felt like Cal got it going right there, and, you know, I was really happy to be able to follow through on that and, you know, grab the lead again. And you kind of set the table for Muny to do his job."

Andrés Muñoz entered for the ninth inning and closed out the victory for Seattle to send the series back to Detroit, all tied at a game apiece.

The Tigers rallied to tie the game in the top of the eighth inning with the aid of an error by first baseman Josh Naylor. Spencer Torkelson pounced on the error by slicing a double down the first baseline that scored Gleyber Torres and Riley Greene all the way from first base to tie the game at 2-2.

Matt Brash – who earned the victory in relief – worked out of the jam with strikeouts of Wenceel Pérez, looking, and Dillon Dingler on a checked swing to give the offense the chance to respond in the bottom of the inning.

"To lose the lead late like that and to come right back and score a run was huge," manager Dan Wilson said. "I thought those at-bats by Julio and Cal were tremendous and just a huge momentum shift back to our dugout."

The two-run eighth by Detroit quickly sucked the air out of a raucous T-Mobile Park crowd of over 47,000 eagerly awaiting the first home playoff win in a generation. But the Mariners didn't roll over when things went awry.

"I feel like we're in it to win it, you know?" Rodríguez said. "And it doesn't matter, like, what really happened, if they take the lead or anything like that, they tie it up. We know what the goal is about the game, and there is not really time to feel sorry about what happens or anything like that.

"So I feel like just stay in the moment. I feel like that's kind of how I personally see it, just stay in the moment, and knowing that we have to hit. We have to hit. The game's not over, and we have the opportunity to answer back."

Finnegan relieved presumptive AL Cy Young award winner Tarik Skubal after seven strong innings for Detroit. The Mariners gave Skubal two of his six losses during the regular season and needed to find a way to beat Detroit again with their ace on the mound to avoid an 0-2 flight to the Motor City.

Jorge Polanco crushed a pair of solo home runs off Skubal in the fourth and sixth innings that served as the offense for Seattle until Rodríguez's heroics in the eighth. 

Both homers came in almost exactly the same spot in Polanco's strike zone; belt-high, middle-in. The first was a 91.6 mph slider that Polanco hit into Seattle's bullpen for a 1-0 lead. Then, a 99.1 mph sinker was into the cantina behind the left field wall for a 2-0 advantage.

"Especially in the first at-bat, I only saw one pitch, but we already know what he does," Polanco said. "We know what he throws. He got pretty good pitches, he got pretty good fastball.

"I came up there just trying to get a good pitch to hit, just hit to the middle of the field and put it straight on."

Polanco is the first Mariner to have two home runs in a playoff game since Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martínez and Jay Buhner all did so in the 1995 playoffs. Griffey hit two in Game 1 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees, Martínez in Game 4 of the ALDS, and Buhner in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Cleveland Indians.

Skubal was still great for Detroit over seven innings, allowing just the two runs on Polanco's homers on five total hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.

"You don't see the same guy get good swings against Tarik very often," Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said. "But other than that, I thought there was a walk in there. There was a few pitches that I think he didn't execute. But all in all, he did a tremendous job of keeping us in the game and keeping it right where it was."

Zach Neto of the Los Angeles Angels is the only other player to homer twice off Skubal this season, though he did so in two separate games. It's only the fourth time in Skubal's career he's allowed multiple home runs to the same batter in the same game. Jorge Soler of the Kansas City Royals, Pedro Severino of the Baltimore Orioles and Paul Goldschmidt of the St. Louis Cardinals each homered twice off of Skubal in games in the second half of the 2021 season.

Meanwhile, Seattle starter Luis Castillo survived two laborious innings early and left before the end of the fifth inning while allowing no runs. A 25-pitch first inning was followed by a 26-pitch second as three walks helped Castillo's pitch count soar. A lead-off walk to Colt Keith in the second and a one-out walk to Game 1 hero Zach McKinstry put two runners on for the Tigers.

Javier Báez had a swinging bunt dribbler in front of the plate that was enough to advance the runners to second and third, but Castillo got Parker Meadows to strikeout to end the Detroit threat.

Castillo rebounded with nine-pitch innings in the third and fourth before the Tigers applied more pressure in the fifth. Báez drew a one-out walk and Gleyber Torres delivered a two-out single for the only hit off Castillo to advance the runner to third. Manager Dan Wilson went to the bullpen to get left-hander Gabe Speier to face lefty Kerry Carpenter, who promptly struck out to keep Detroit scoreless through five.

Castillo finished with just one hit allowed with four walks and three strikeouts over 4 ⅔ innings for Seattle.

"Just a great ballgame from ‘Rock,’" Wilson said. "And at a time when we really needed it. It seems like he's done that all along."

Speier pitched a clean sixth as well, and Eduard Bazardo allowed only a two-out single to Báez as Seattle tried to hold their 2-0 lead.

The Mariners never managed to get multiple runners on base in a single inning thrown by Skubal, but the instant he left the game, Seattle pounced.

Rodríguez's double gave the Mariners the lead and a broken bat infield single from Polanco for his third hit of the game put runners on the corners with one out. However, Rodríguez was thrown out at home on a grounder to third from Eugenio Suárez that took some of the bite out of Seattle's attack. Left-hander Brant Hurter then entered and got Naylor to pop out to second base to keep the Mariners' lead at 3-2.

Muñoz returned to the mound after pitching two dominant innings in Game 1 to close out the win. Muñoz struck out McKinstry, got Báez to pop out to second base, and Meadows grounded out to first as Seattle earned its first playoff win at home since Game 5 of the 2001 ALDS against the Indians.

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