A day after reaching one of baseball's rare accomplishments, Julio Rodriguez still wasn't thrilled with the idea of discussing his personal achievement while the team battles to remain in the postseason race.
With the Mariners losing eight of 11 games going into Tuesday, the center fielder just didn't feel right about making a big deal of becoming the second player in franchise history to tally 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in a season.
But after eschewing interview requests in the aftermath of Monday's frustrating 8-5 loss to the Angels in 11 innings, the young superstar begrudgingly talked about how it felt to enter the exclusive 30-30 club.
"You know me, you know what I'm about whenever I step on field," he said. "It's tough to talk about the good things you are doing, when us collectively, we're not doing good. It is always about winning first for me. That's why we're here. As cool as it sounds, the 30-30 club, what I'm about is winning."
So had that 10th-inning laser over the wall in dead center, giving him 30 homers on the season, come in a victory, it would've been a little different.
"Definitely, it would've been a lot better with a lot more celebration," he said.
Rodriguez is the fourth player 22 years old or younger to produce a 30-30 season, joining Alex Rodriguez — who had 42 homers and 46 stolen bases for the Mariners in 1998 — Mike Trout in 2012 and Ronald Acuna Jr. in 2019.
His 30-30 season was the 44th in MLB history, which is also his jersey number.
"That's a really cool stat," he said. "It was definitely a really cool moment. I know my family's really happy. They definitely enjoyed it."
Perhaps the best aspect of that 30th homer was that it flew into his special seating area known as the "No-Fly Zone" and was caught by a young fan with a nice grab.
"That was definitely really cool," Rodriguez said. "My mom was talking to me about it and she was like, 'Hey, imagine if you were able to hit that homer over there to the J-Rod Squad.' And to be able for it to happen like that, it was actually pretty cool."
Rodriguez made a trade for the ball.
"He just asked for a ball," Rodriguez said. "I gave him a signed ball that said '30-30 club' on it and I also gave him a signed game-used bat and he wasn't expecting that. He was really happy about that. I was grateful that I was able to hook him up and take care of him because he definitely took care of me."
Torrens returns
A year ago, Luis Torrens had his minor-league contract selected from Class AAA Tacoma in mid-September and he was a part of the Mariners first postseason team in 21 years.
After recently signing a minor-league contract to return to the organization, the popular catcher/designated hitter/fill-in reliever has joined the Mariners on a similar timetable. Will it lead to a return trip to the postseason?
On Tuesday, Seattle selected Torrens' contract and added him to the active roster with backup catcher Brian O'Keefe placed on the paternity list.
O'Keefe hurriedly exited the clubhouse after Monday's loss to the Angels and was expected to fly to North Carolina, where his wife was expected to give birth.
"He's excited to be back," Servais said of Torrens. "He's a good dude. We really like him. I just said, 'Hey, man, don't worry about getting any hits. Get into the bullpen and catch all those guys, so if you end up in the game tonight in the ninth or 10th inning, you've caught them. So he understands he needs to get up to speed here as quick as he can."
Going national
The Mariners announced a pair of time changes to upcoming home games due to being picked up by national television broadcasts.
The game on Tuesday, Sept. 26 against the Astros, which had previously been scheduled to start at 6:40 p.m., will now have a 7:05 p.m. start time with TBS broadcasting the game. Mariners fans in the Pacific Northwest may still watch the game on ROOT Sports.
The penultimate game of the regular season on Saturday, Sept. 30 against the Rangers, which was previously scheduled to start at 6:40 p.m., will now have at 4:15 p.m. start time. The game has been picked up by the Fox national broadcast and will be shown exclusively on Ch. 13.
Also
Right-handed pitcher Luke Weaver was claimed off waivers by the Yankees. The Mariners designated Weaver for assignment on Sunday after he pitched 4 1/3 innings the day prior in Tampa. Signed as a free agent after being designated for assignment by the Reds, he appeared in five games for the Mariners, posting an 0-1 record with 6.08 earned-run average. In 13 1/3 innings, he allowed 16 hits, struck out eight and walked three.
