Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena power Mariners past Angels

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on Jul 25, 2025

Published in Baseball

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ANAHEIM, Calif — A couple of hours after the Mariners struck with baseball’s first big move ahead of the trade deadline and acquired a middle-of-the-order bat, their current middle-of-the-order bats responded.

Now if only Julio Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena can keep this up after Josh Naylor arrives.

Rodríguez, Arozarena and Jorge Polanco all homered as the Mariners opened a seven-game road trip with a 4-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night.

The night seemed like one victory after another for the Mariners, and it all started with a trade.

Just after 5:30 p.m. word broke of the Mariners acquiring Naylor from the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for pitchers Brandyn Garcia and Ashton Izzi. He’s an instant upgrade for the overall production the Mariners have received from first base all season and another bat that should lengthen the order.

The M’s gained a game in the AL West standings as Houston lost the opener of a series against the Athletics.

Logan Evans pitched out of some trouble throughout the night and allowed only one run over five innings to earn the win.

And the duo of Rodríguez and Arozarena provided the slug that the Mariners hope will be bolstered by Naylor’s arrival.

Rodríguez homered for the first time since his three-in-three games barrage in Detroit going into the All-Star break. It was his 15 th of the season and was punched out to right field over the short-wall that hugs the foul pole at Angel Stadium.

Cal Raleigh followed with a single and then it was Arozarena’s turn continuing his power surge that’s going on three weeks. Also taking advantage of the similar short-wall in left field, Arozarena’s line drive left the bat at 110.4 mph and found the seats to capped the three-run rally.

Arozarena now has 11 homers since June 30, tied for the most in baseball during that span with Eugenio Suarez, one of the other primary trade targets for the M’s.

The homers abruptly flipped what had been a solid start from Yusei Kikuchi. Before the inning started, Kikuchi had allowed only one extra-base hit in his career against the Mariners. By the time he was lifted with two outs in the fifth inning, he’d given up three in the span of four batters — the two homers and a double to Mitch Garver that ended his night.

Polanco provided a little cushion with a solo shot leading off the eighth inning, his 16 th homer of the season.

Evans earned his first win since late May when he allowed one run in eight innings against Washington. He faced trouble right away after Mike Trout doubled and scored on Nolan Schanuel’s single and only got out of the first inning thanks to a double play. He also pitched out of trouble in the third leaving runners at second and third after a pair of groundouts.

But it was overall a solid performance by Evans while also still leaving small areas for improvement, like finishing off innings. In the fourth inning, he was ahead of Travis d’Arnaud 1-2 with two outs before throwing three straight balls and walking the No. 7 hitter in the Angels lineup. That led to eight additional pitches to get out of the inning as he eventually struck out Lamonte Wade Jr. looking.

The next inning followed a similar pattern. Evans retired the first two batters and was ahead of Trout 1-2 before again throwing three straight balls and issued the walk. This time, Evans only needed five pitches to strike out Schanuel looking, but they were stress pitches that with a little better command wouldn’t have been needed.

Zach Neto pulled the Angels within 3-2 with a two-out RBI single in the seventh, a run that scored in part because Carlos Vargas committed a balk that moved Luis Rengifo into scoring position.

Neto moved to second on the throw to the plate, but Gabe Speier got a shallow fly ball from Trout to end the inning. Matt Brash struck out a pair in the eighth but Andrés Muñoz’s faced an unsettled ninth inning after a wild-pitch strikeout, a two-out infield single and a four-pitch walk to Trout loaded the bases.

Schanuel lined the first pitch left field and Arozarena made the catch going to his knees to as Muñoz set a new career-high with his 23rd save.