Julio Rodriguez understands the importance of beauty sleep.
In Rodriguez’s second game back from injury after the All-Star break, the 21-year-old rookie made quite the impact for the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday. During the Mariners’ day game against the Texas Rangers, things were looking grim for the home team down 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh.
With two men on, however, Rodriguez took Jon Gray deep with this three-run rocket to put the Mariners on top 4-2 for the game-winning tally. Since Rodriguez returned from injury earlier in the week, the outfielder has hit two huge home runs for his team in clutch spots.
JULIO FOR THE LEAD! pic.twitter.com/4jCf0j7JwZ
— MLB (@MLB) July 27, 2022
What a blast! In the Mariners postgame interviews, Seattle manager Scott Servais said Rodriguez swapped out his bat ahead of clobbering home that three-run knock. The reasoning? Because… the bat was sleeping.
omg Julio took a different bat up to the plate when he hit the home run because his usual one "was sleeping, it's a day game" pic.twitter.com/ATT66iEWVn
— Lookout Landing (@LookoutLanding) July 27, 2022
As he’s standing there ready to go up for that at bat, before that he says ‘I had to switch bats.’ I said ‘ah, you got a new one?’. He said ‘yeah the other one’s sleeping; it’s a day game he’s not ready to go.’ He took a new bat up there and hit a three-run homer. That’s Julio Rodriguez.
And what do you know, Rodriguez was right! Considering the Mariners have won their last 15 games that Rodriguez has played, his bats can take all the naps they want to.
