SEATTLE — No one in either clubhouse had ever seen this happen before.
When the New York Yankees threw Julio out of the Seattle Mariners Rodriguez on third base because Rodriguez forgot to put it back in his bag after nearly being hit by a flying baseball bat, he nearly surprised everyone at T-Mobile Park.
And it was a big reason the Yankees posted a 2-1, 10-inning victory Wednesday night to secure their first American League playoff spot.
“That’s one I’ve never seen and I don’t know if I’ll ever see again,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
“I asked a couple of guys and they all said they’d never seen that on a baseball field,” Rodriguez said.
“A little strange,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson.
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Of course, there was much more going on in the Yankees locker room, which led to a lavish party.
When it was all over, they entered a clubhouse lined wall to wall with plastic sheeting and sprayed dozens of bottles of champagne and many more cans of beer at each other.
They seemed to be celebrating extra hard, as many of them were on the team that missed the playoffs last year, finishing fourth in the American League East.
The Yankees extended their division lead to a season-high five games Wednesday. They have 10 regular-season games remaining and could sweep the Mariners on Thursday.
But before all that happened, starting pitcher Nestor Cortes continued his recent dominant run by allowing no runs in six innings, striking out six, walking three and allowing four hits.
First baseman Anthony Rizzo drove in both runs, including an RBI double down the right-field line on the first pitch of the 10th inning, scoring extra-innings runner Jasson Domínguez from second base to take the lead.
In the seventh inning, former closer Clay Holmes gave up a solo shot to Justin Turner, tying the score at 1-1. It appeared the momentum was turning in Seattle’s favor.
The biggest moment, however, came when there were runners on the corners with no outs and Yankees reliever Ian Hamilton faced Randy Arozarena in the 10th inning.
Hamilton started the inning by allowing a jam-shot single to Cal Raleigh, Rodriguez to third base. But with the score tied 2-2 for Arozarena, Hamilton made sure to miss a slider.
Then things got really wild.
Arozarena’s club slipped from his hands and flew towards Rodriguezwho avoided it by running from the baseline to foul territory. The advantage? Rodriguez not hit. The downside? He thought the game had been stopped to retrieve the bat. He didn’t go back to the bag right away.
“Honestly,” Rodriguez said: “I saw a bat fly at my face and I just ran away from it. After that I was shocked for a little bit and I didn’t make it back to third base in time.”
Third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. sensed an opportunity. He yelled at catcher Austin Wells to throw the ball to him.
“(Rodriguez) just ran for safety,” Chisholm said. “He didn’t come back to base. I told Wells, ‘Come on, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. The game’s not dead.’”
Wells ran to Rodriguez and threw the ball to Chisholm, who tapped it out Rodriguez as he tried to slide headfirst back into third base.
“It was huge, bro,” Chisholm said.
With that, Hamilton finished the race by eliminating Turner.
Aaron Judge, Austin Wells and his Yankees teammates celebrate Wednesday night after clinching a spot in the playoffs. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
And it came after the Mariners made another big mistake at third base in Tuesday’s game. Victor Robles attempted to steal home with the bases loaded and the score 3-0 with two outs in the first inning, but starting pitcher Luis Gil threw Robles out. It stopped the Mariners’ momentum, and the Yankees won 11-2.
Boone called both plays “gifts to us.”
“Being on third base twice in a row — pretty amazing,” Boone said.
“We had two crazy plays that I’ve never seen in real life,” Wells said. “They kept us on the edge of our seats. That was a lot of fun.”
“The baserunning plays were a real game-changer for us,” Rizzo said.
Rodriguez still seemed stunned by what happened Wednesday. He called it “such a strange play.”
“When I saw the bat, I thought it was going to be a dead ball and they were going to pick it up,” he said. “Then I tried to go back to third, but … I turned my back to the field and I heard the manager yelling at him to go back to third. Then (I tried) to go back to third. At that point, I wasn’t really thinking about the game. I was just trying to get away from the bat coming at me. That’s what happened. That was definitely a first for me.”
“It just seemed like a reaction and a ‘get out of the way’ kind of thing, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a game before,” Wilson said. “Just a weird situation.”
A strange situation that led to a champagne celebration for the Yankees.
(Top photo of Julio Rodríguez being picked off third base by Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the 10th inning Wednesday night: Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press)
