Julio Rodriguez's last four games in the dog days of August have produced a stat-line that feels almost mythical in modern baseball.
It isn't unfair to say Rodriguez struggled in the first half of his sophomore season. He was still hitting the ball hard, but he was striking out at an alarming rate. Through the All-Star break, he was striking out at a 25 percent clip, and there was some frustration. His high-leverage stats were especially bad, with Rodriguez hitting just .164 with an OPS of .576 in late and close situations through July 22, per The Seattle Times' Matt Calkins.
Since then, he's been among the hottest hitters in the sport. He's hitting .338/.395/.590 in the second half of the year, culminating in these past four games against the Royals and Astros. Following Saturday's win over the Astros -- Rodriguez's fourth straight four-plus-hit game -- he is 17 of his past 22. He has raised his overall batting average up to .278 from .251 to start the month of August, and in the process he has the Mariners in a playoff spot for the time being.
Rodriguez is also far better in late and close situations, with his season numbers up to .281 with an OPS of .778 total. Most recently, that includes a key insurance single in the ninth Wednesday and a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning against the Royals Thursday.
This span is historic in a few ways. It's the first time since 1925 a player has recorded four-plus hits in four straight games, with the last being Milt Stock for the Brooklyn Robins. 17 hits is also the most in a four-game span in MLB history.
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Rodriguez, 22, signed a 12-year, $209.3 million contract during his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2022. He's still seeing the ebbs and flows of an incredibly young superstar, but make no mistake, he is a superstar.
Julio Rodriguez by the numbers
Rodriguez is doing something special. On a broad scale, he's hitting .405 with an OPS of 1.119 in August and he's the second player in MLB history to post two straight 20/20 seasons to begin his career, joining the Royals' Bobby Witt Jr.
The past four games have become a microcosm for the Mariners star, whose 2023 breakout it could be argued came at T-Mobile Park when he hit 41 home runs in the first round of the Home Run Derby.
Here's a look at some of the key numbers from Rodriguez's remarkable week.
17
Rodriguez's 17 hits in the past four games are an MLB record. His hit totals are four-five-four-four in his last four games, with the five-hit game finishing a triple shy of the cycle.
The previous record was Stock's 16 hits in a four-game stretch in 1925. His 17 hits are equal to the total posted by the Yankees in their last four games.
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5
Rodriguez has also been a menace on the base-paths.
In addition to his 17 hits, he has five steals, and according to Mariners PR he's also the first player to log five steals in addition to 14 hits in a four-game span. That number has, of course, inflated since the Mariners released the highly-cherrypicked stat.
.773
Rodriguez's batting average over the last four games. He's 17 of his last 22. Some numbers just speak for themselves.
27
Rodriguez has raised his batting average to .278 from .251 at the end of July, a 27-point difference.
Rodriguez is hitting .405 in the month of August with an OPS of 1.119. With his performance Saturday night, Rodriguez finally got his OPS above .800 for the season, a number he's been striving for all year. It's the first time since April 10 his OPS in 2023 has climbed up over .800.
It's worth noting, these numbers are just at the plate. Rodriguez is the best among qualified outfielders with 12 outs above average, three more than a gaggle of players tied at second place with nine.
The culmination of all this is a Mariners team that is 23-11 since the All-Star break and has leapfrogged to the third wild card spot in the standings with the Blue Jays half a game behind them. They're 21-7 in their last 28 games and they've won five straight.
Rodriguez is a huge catalyst behind that success. This year is a glimpse into the Mariners' foreseeable future. Rodriguez has to be the leader for them. That's a lot to put on a 22-year-old second-year player. But if this month is any indication, Rodriguez is more than capable of rising to the occasion.
