Mariners' Julio Rodríguez makes MLB home run, stolen base history
A-Rod is forever cemented in baseball history, but now there is a new king of the "Rod" namesake.
On Monday, Julio Rodríguez made more MLB history when he hit a home run in the fourth inning of the Seattle Mariners' 6-3 road loss to the Cincinnati Reds in Ohio. With the 411-foot blast, J-Rod became the first player to record 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases in each of his first two seasons, according to MLB.com.
He's now at 25 home runs and 36 stolen bases on the season with 25 games left. In his rookie year, Rodríguez hit 28 home runs and had 25 stolen bases.
The 22-year-old slugger was named the American League Player of the Month for August when he had 18 hits in five games, the most in that span in nearly 100 years. Milt Stock of the Brooklyn Robins (now Los Angeles Dodgers) had 16 hits in four games in 1925. Last month, Rodríguez led the AL with 45 hits, 10 doubles, 30 RBI and 11 stolen bases along with a .429 batting average. During his surge, the Mariners had a 12-1 stretch and climbed their way into a tie with the Houston Astros at the top of the AL West.
“I was recognized, but it was a whole team effort,” Rodríguez said. “It’s not just me. It takes all of us to win. I feel like that’s what’s really cool about our team. It’s not just one guy, and I feel like everybody’s feeding off what we all got going on.”
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He also hit a record 41 home runs in the first round of this year's Home Run Derby, which was held in front of the Seattle faithful.
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