SEATTLE — Julio Rodriguez arrived at T-Mobile Park on Saturday afternoon and demanded answers from the empty stadium.
Amid a power shortage that no one could have imagined a quarter of the way through the season, Rodriguez attended early batting practice with Mariners head of batting strategy Jarrett DeHart and had a positive and simple conversation.
Just in time for the fastball.
Those efforts paid off in a big way 24 hours later when Rodriguez hit a 409-foot, two-run homer to give Seattle an 8-4 victory over the Athletics on Sunday afternoon. The deep fly ball was his second of the season and his first at home, ending his streak of 43 consecutive at-bats without an extra-base hit.
In the fifth inning, Rodriguez came within inches of hitting a home run, but instead hit a 161.7 mph, 403-foot double that grazed the top of the yellow pads deep in left-center field.
Rodriguez was starting to show signs of being in top form, especially in Saturday's loss, when he hit three balls over 100 mph, all of which were outs.
“I put in all my effort and did everything I could,” Rodriguez said. “But sometimes even when you think you're doing everything, the game shows you, 'OK, you should do a little more.' And that's where I am.”
The Mariners' efforts to rebuild their offensive line last offseason centered on Rodriguez becoming a star. However, his .547 OPS is the third-lowest in MLB from his position as second in the batting lineup, having played in all but four of the 41 games.
“I think there’s still a check that we need to keep checking, or I think there’s another check that we need to keep checking,” Rodriguez said.
“I caught the fastball in time.”
Rodriguez's home run was off left-hander Alex Wood's mid-range, 138 mph sinker, tied to his grandiose approach to timing fastballs. The double was an up-and-in from left-hander Kyle Muller on a 92.4 mph four-seamer.
Rodriguez's batting average of .321 against the Heaters is well above the league average of .242. But before Sunday's massive explosion, that didn't correlate with damage. Out of 121 swings on in-zone fastballs, only 3 swings barreled.
More specifically, on fastballs that go over the center of the plate, 32.4% of his contacts were classified as weak/poor by Statcast, 17th worst in the game.
And he added two barrels against his fastball on Sunday alone.
“If you can get to the fastball in time, you can hit anything,” Rodriguez said. “I feel like it's something I've struggled with a little bit. And I feel like I've definitely gotten better at it little by little and figured out how to time it best for me.”
“Earn your pitch”
Improving your at-bat discipline is essential to getting into more fastball sequences. Entering Sunday, Rodriguez was behind the numbers 33.1% of the time, 20th worst in MLB and better than in each of his first two years. Sunday's home run was 1-2 in the count.
There are always swings and misses in his game, a trait that sometimes makes him a threat when he can connect with a “pitcher's pitch” for a knock. However, if he doesn't hit consistently or for power, his strikeout rate of 28.7%, tied for 22nd worst in the game, gets even worse.
“Because of him, teams understand how to pitch him,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “They're not going to put the first one out there for him. They're going to challenge him. They've got to get rid of bad pitchers and get pitches that they can hit.”
“Put more pressure on your legs.”
Rodriguez's slugging percentage jumped from .291 to .323 on Sunday, ranking him 158th out of 172 eligible batters. The 194 point decrease from last year was the 13th largest in MLB, excluding big home runs.
Some are mechanical. Rodriguez introduced a new setup in spring training that was intended to reduce movement into the hitting position, but for some reason it affected his balance.
“If you're rushing forward to hit it, all of a sudden you can't stay behind the ball and get it in the air,” Servais said. “At that point, you end up with a lot of balls on the ground.”
Rodriguez recently made adjustments that are more representative of his previous setup. “Because I like to put more power into my legs,” he said, “and I feel like he's not getting as much power out of his body as he would like.”
Aside from Rodriguez being well-prepared and confident that things will turn around, the Mariners' offense depends on it.
