SEATTLE — With their playoff chances slipping away, the Seattle Mariners found a new, painful way to lose.
A bat in the air. A momentary lapse of memory. And a strange double play.
“I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in a game before. It's a weird situation,” Seattle manager Dan Wilson said.
The Mariners fell to the New York Yankees 2-1 in 10 innings on Wednesday night, but it was the way the bottom of the 10th inning played out that will be remembered in Mariners history as another chapter in a season gone awry.
With runners on the corners, Julio Rodriguez was pulled at third base after dodging a bat that slipped out of Randy Arozarena's hands when he struck out swinging.
“I asked some guys and they all said, 'I've never seen that on a baseball field,'” Rodriguez said.
Seattle trailed 2-1 when Cal Raleigh's 10th-inning single advanced Rodriguez, the automatic runner, from second base to third. Ian Hamilton struck out Arozarena on a 2-2 slider, and his bat flew out of his hands.
Straight to Rodriguez's head.
“I honestly saw the bat flying right at my face,” Rodriguez said.
Seattle's young star scuttled into foul territory as the bat swung behind third base, and it took him a moment to compose himself. But the play wasn't dead, and catcher Austin Wells made a quick throw to third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., intercepting Rodriguez before he could return to the base.
Rodriguez said he thought the play was over because the bat went flying.
“After I saw the bat I thought it was going to be a dead play, and then they were going to pick up the bat and I was going to go back to third,” Rodriguez said. “I ran away and turned my back to the field and heard [third base coach] Manny [Acta] yelling, 'Get back to third.' That's when I got back to third.
“I wasn't really thinking about the game at that point, I was just trying to get away from the bat that was coming at me. That's what happened. It was the first time that's happened to me, for sure.”
Hamilton struck out Justin Turner to end the game, clinching a playoff spot for the Yankees.
Rodriguez's error came one night after Victor Robles made the questionable decision to try to steal home in the first inning against New York while Turner was at the plate with a 3-0 count and the bases loaded. Robles was out and the Yankees won easily.
This loss was more frustrating for Seattle, as both Houston and Minnesota lost on Wednesday, meaning the Mariners missed a chance to make up needed ground in the AL West and wild-card races. Seattle is five games behind division leader Houston and three behind Minnesota for the final AL wild-card spot.
“It all happened very quickly and again, very reactively,” Wilson said. “I think we would have all gotten out of the way, but it was a shame it ended like this.”
