Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 19

Julio Rodriguez's 2-run gaffe caps Mariners' 22-0 franchise-worst loss to Brewers

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Aug 19

Julio Rodriguez's 2-run gaffe caps Mariners' 22-0 franchise-worst loss to Brewers

Q: How did an $18 million All-Star's simple mental lapse contribute to one of the worst shutouts in modern MLB history?

Julio Rodríguez’s mental lapse turned a routine sacrifice fly into an unusually damaging three-run play and became one of the defining moments in Seattle’s 22-0 collapse. In the eighth inning, with the Mariners already trailing 19-0 and the bases loaded, Christian Yelich hit a routine fly ball to center. Rodríguez made the catch but mistakenly believed it was the third out. He threw the ball into the stands, which made it dead. Because it was actually only the second out, MLB base-award rules applied: the runner from third scored on the sac fly, and the other two runners were awarded home. What should have been one run became three. The mistake did not decide the game, which was already out of reach, but it directly added two extra runs in an inning when Milwaukee scored nine. That helped push the margin to 22-0, a franchise-worst loss for Seattle and a score that matched the largest shutout margin in MLB’s modern era, alongside 22-0 wins by Pittsburgh in 1975 and Cleveland in 2004. The play drew outsized attention because Rodríguez is not a fringe player but a three-time All-Star and one of Seattle’s highest-paid stars at $18 million this season. It also capped a brutal night for him personally: he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts as Seattle managed only five hits. By then, the game had deteriorated so badly that infielder Leo Rivas was pitching emergency relief and allowed nine runs in the inning.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 19

With Seattle already down 19-0 in the eighth, Julio Rodriguez caught Christian Yelich's fly ball for the second out and flipped it into the stands, allowing two Milwaukee runs to score.
The mistake came with the bases loaded because Rodriguez appeared to think the inning was over; under baseball rules, runners were awarded two bases after the dead-ball throw.
Seattle then finished a 22-0 defeat, its worst loss in franchise history, after entering the eighth trailing 13-0 and giving up nine runs in the frame.
Leo Rivas, a third baseman used as an emergency reliever, absorbed much of that damage by allowing nine hits and nine runs in his lone inning, while Rodriguez went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.