A 22-0 scoreline should leave little room for one player’s mistake to dominate the conversation. But Julio Rodríguez found a way to turn one historically shameful night into something more bizarre. In the 8th, he secured the second out on Christian Yelich’s fly ball and casually threw the ball to the stands, giving away 2 runs. Although the game was already well beyond the Seattle Mariners’ reach, baseball fans were quick to criticize his gaffe. But Pat Murphy has a completely different perspective.
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“Guys lose their focus for a second, especially a guy that’s played as long as he has and understands the game and has done so much for the game. Those things happen, especially when the score is like that,” the Milwaukee Brewers manager told the reporters during the postgame, per Fox Sports 920.
The Brewers were 1-0 entering the 5th. They went 6-0 by the end of the same. The Mariners failed to spark a comeback attempt. And the runs kept piling up.
By the end of the 7th, they were 13-0. In the bottom of the 8th, Leo Rivas allowed 6 more runs before Yelich appeared at the plate with the bases loaded. The batter hit a sacrifice fly, and the $209.3 million Seattle star found himself under it.
But he forgot that it was only the second out of the inning.
Julio threw it to the stands and started walking casually. In a matter of seconds, he realized that it wasn’t the end of the inning.
Andrew Vaughn and Jonathan Ornelas reached home, adding to Seattle’s misery. It took the score from 19-0 to 21-0.
The Brewers added another run after that to match the highest shutout record of the modern era of MLB. The Pittsburgh Pirates had the same score against the Chicago Cubs in 1975, and the Cleveland Indians thwarted the New York Yankees 22-0 in 2004. But it was hardly the biggest shutout loss in the league’s history.
Back in 1883, the Providence Grays dominated the Philadelphia Quakers (now Philadelphia Phillies) for a 28-0 score. Just four years later, the Quakers had a huge 24-0 win against the Indianapolis Hoosiers. That’s 139 years before the Brewers’ historic win on Tuesday.
While the Mariners suffered with a smaller margin compared to the Quakers or Hoosiers, it was hardly any better. And Murphy understood what the impact could be on a player when he’s going through such a huge defeat.
Hence, instead of bashing the blunder, he took it as just another mistake. Pat Murphy said:
“At that point, I was playing catch in the hallway here with Jackson (his son). So I could be guilty of that, too, because Jackson and I were playing catch. I didn’t see the play, but yeah, that can happen.”
Many fans and critics were much less forgiving than the Milwaukee skipper. Some even urged strict actions for Rodríguez, while a few of them bashed the entire team for the result. The Brewers will remember the triumph for a long time, but Julio and the Seattle Mariners will try to move on as fast as possible.