ESPN News Services
Aug 19, 2023, 10: 57 PM ET
HOUSTON — Julio Rodríguez set a major league record with his 17th hit in four games, helping to lead the Seattle Mariners past the Houston Astros 10-3 for their fifth straight win Saturday night.
Rodriguez, with a single to left field in the seventh inning, broke a major league record set in 1925 by Milt Stock of the Brooklyn Robins. He finished 4-for-6, giving him his fourth consecutive four-plus-hit game.
“Honestly, I knew when they put it on the scoreboard that I had set a record for a four-game span,” Rodriguez said. “Before that, I didn’t know.”
The four straight four-hit games tied Rodriguez with Stock for the longest such streak, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He is 17-for-21 (.810) during the four-game stretch, improving his season batting average from .256 to .278.
“Julio is just smoking hot right now and it is fun to watch,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “Every time up there he expects to get a hit, we expect to watch him get a hit. … Tonight obviously our offense was on it. We’ve seen Framber Valdez a lot, had really good at-bats tonight early on putting pressure on him.”
Dylan Moore homered twice for the Mariners, and Logan Gilbert (11-5) surrendered just two runs on eight hits, struck out three and walked one in six innings for his 14th quality start of the season.
The Mariners, who are 13-3 in their past 16 games, pulled to 1½ games behind the Astros for the second AL wild-card spot and maintained a half-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays for the third and final AL wild-card spot.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.