Randy Arozarena Rips Through Royals With Multi-Homer Game, Leading Mariners To 6-2 Win
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - Coming off a road series against the Texas Rangers that saw all three games go into extra innings and opening the current homestand against a Kansas City Royals team that’s provided plenty of bizarre games over the last few years, it seemed like our Seattle Mariners were destined for more wacky contests to end the month of June. Instead, homers from Randy Arozarena (Twice) and Cal Raleigh helped the Mariners gain a solid lead over the Royals to take the first of this four game series. George Kirby was solid for Seattle on the mound, throwing six innings of one run baseball with that lone tally coming in the third inning when Kansas City strung together three consecutive singles with two outs.
Seattle Mariners starting pitcher George Kirby during the teams 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals to begin a four-game home series at T-Mobile Park on Monday, June 30th, 2025. (Photos by Eric Hiller for Circling Seattle Sports)
Early into this Monday night matchup, both sides weren’t able to produce much against either starter with the Mariners the team that had the first two baserunners on a J.P. Crawford single in the first and a Donovan Solano walk in the second, both left stranded. The trend of low event innings seemed to be rolling along right on schedule in the top of the third as Kirby struck out Royals left field Drew Waters on a slider low and inside while getting right fielder John Rave to ground out softly back to the mound. Seattle’s starter wouldn’t be able to work the clean inning, as Kyle Isbel, Jonathan India, and Bobby Witt Jr. all singled to drive a run across home plate and get the Royals on the board first thanks to a few somewhat weakly hit balls.
As if that top of the third was just a hiccup, the game returned to it’s quick and efficiently low event pace for the bottom of the frame and top of the fourth, before things began to click for the Mariners. Following a few two pitch plate appearances by Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh, Randy Arozarena hit a career milestone as his form continues to improve over the last few weeks as he’s slashing .304/.403/.518 in his last 15 games. Arozarena slammed home run number 100 in his career, hammering a cutter that Royals starter Michael Wacha left too close to the heart of the plate. The Mariners left fielder flexed a bit of muscle with this opposite field solo shot, sending it to the fans in right-center field that tied the game. Arozarena’s milestone solo shot seemed to help Seattle begin to crack the code on Wacha, as Dominic Canzone and Donovan Solano both singled off the Kansas City right hander before a Mitch Garver walk loaded the bases. The Mariners weren’t ultimately able to capitalize on that golden opportunity, but it was a sign of more offensive success to come.
“Very happy. Soon as I hit it, kind of gave me memories of hitting my very first one in my debut. Very happy for myself, it’s kind of an embodiment of the work I’ve done. Obviously I also hit 101, but I remember when I hit the 100 I got flashbacks of one time when I hit a three home runs in a game over there in Cuba.”
Following Arozarena’s homer in the bottom of the fourth, George Kirby was able to work a clean top of the fifth courtesy of a few soft fly outs and a strikeout of Rave to get the Seattle offense back to the plate, looking to continue chipping away at Wacha. Picking up from that bottom of the fourth, the first three Mariners batters in the inning singled to load the bases with no outs for Cal Raleigh. The 27,309 fans in attendance at T-Mobile Park serenaded the Seattle backstop with chants of “MVP” in hopes of seeing another monster blast, but instead they happily accepted a sacrifice fly to right field that scored Cole Young and put runners on the corners for Arozarena. Kansas City’s starter was starting to lose control, with his first three pitches of the plate appearance against Randy coming out of the zone before needing to relocate with a sinker that set dead in the heart of the plate. Randy was only able to foul that one off, but he made no mistake on a fastball that sat on the top rail and within the barrel of his bat as he thumped a three-run homer to the fans in the “J-ROD Squad” located in centerfield.
Seattle Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena and the runners on base in front of him before his three-run homer, his second home run of the night coming in the fifth inning of the teams 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals to begin a four-game home series at T-Mobile Park on Monday, June 30th, 2025. (Photos by Eric Hiller for Circling Seattle Sports)
Arozarena, busting through the milestone of his 100th career homer, quickly had picked up number 101 to push the Mariners just nicely enough out of reach to feel somewhat comfortable. Kirby acknowledged the strong run support and held up his end, mowing down the top of the Royals order in 1-2-3 fashion following Seattle’s four-run fifth inning to keep momentum on the side of the home team. From here on out, all the Mariners had to do was not implode, and they thankfully escaped any sort of meltdown thanks to a man that’s done nothing but produce for them all season.
“Feel like I’m commanding the ball better, so just want to go as deep as I can, limit the damage and give the team the best chance to win. Going into the All Star break, feel good. Hopefully keep stacking these starts and come out of the break nice and healthy, and get going.”
Kirby’s night game to a close after the sixth inning, but reliever Gabe Speier’s entrance didn’t open any doors for Kansas City as he worked a clean top of the seventh to send us to the stretch. In the bottom of the inning Raleigh snapped his homer “drought,” having not homered in the previous six games, by mashing a knuckle curve that Royals reliever Daniel Lynch IV left low and away and gifting a second ball to the fans in the “J-ROD Squad.” Although it wasn’t ultimately critical to the final score of this game, Cal continuing to crush keeps him on a historic pace and helps him break another record as he became the fifth player in MLB history to reach 33 home runs before the end of June and is the first catcher to do so.
“Kind of a pitch up in the zone. I thought that he just kind of stayed on it really well. Just drove it to where it was pitched and that was a really nice swing, a really nice approach, stayed on it, and drove it to center field. Apparently that was the place to hit it tonight, it seemed like it was carrying out that way. He just put a really good swing on a pitch that was up in the zone and didn’t try to do too much. That’s a pitch where, if you try to pull that, you’re going to probably roll over on it, but stayed on it, stayed through it and put a really nice swing on it.”
Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh rounds the bases following his 33rd homer of the season, a solo shot in the seventh inning of the teams 6-2 win over the Kansas City Royals to begin a four-game home series at T-Mobile Park on Monday, June 30th, 2025. (Photos by Eric Hiller for Circling Seattle Sports)
Kansas City did tack on a second run in the ballgame, coming in the eighth inning as Seattle reliever Trent Thornton struggled and a ground ball pushed John Rave across home plate, but the Royals attempt at a comeback went no further than that as Matt Brash helped the Mariners slam the door shut in the top of the ninth to open the homestand with a victory.
Seattle Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena hoists the teams home run trident following his postgame interview as the team opened a four-game home series against the Kansas City Royals with a 6-2 victory on Monday, June 30th, 2025 at T-Mobile Park. (Photo by Eric Hiller for Circling Seattle Sports)
“I think, honestly, what excites me the most is the fans cheering out there. I don’t know it, it changes a little bit how you play, you get a little more excited. They kind of hype you up a little bit. But yeah, you said it, this is a big ballpark. Sometimes it’s hard to hit a home run, but once that temperature gets higher, you know that ball is going to fly a little more.”
Quick Mariners notes, from Mariners PR
The Mariners won 6-2 against the Royals in the opening game of the 7-game homestand.
Seattle has won 9 of its last 10 games at home against Kansas City, dating back to the 2022 season and lead the all-time series 56-36 at T-Mobile Park.
Randy Arozarena homered twice, hitting his 100th career home run in the 4th inning then a 3-run homer in the 5th inning.
He became the 3rd Mariner to reach 100 career home runs this season, joining Mitch Garver (on 6/20) and Cal Raleigh (on 4/16)…each of the 3 Mariners recorded multi-home run games when they reached 100 career homers.
It marked the 2nd time in Mariners history that 3 players have reached 100 career home runs in the same season, joining Jim Presley, Ken Phelps and Alvin Davis who did so in the 1988 season.
It marked Arozarena’s 8th career multi-home run game (last: 7/20/24 at NYY w/ TBR).
Cal Raleigh hit a solo home run in the 7th inning, marking his MLB-leading 33rd home run of the season.
He became the 5th player in MLB history to reach 33 home runs before the end of June, joining Ken Griffey Jr. (1998), Sammy Sosa (1998), Mark McGwire (1998) and Barry Bonds (2001).
His MLB-leading 70th RBI makes him the fastest Mariners player (84 G) to reach 70 RBI in a season since Bret Boone (also 84 G) in 2003.
Cole Young recorded a career-high 3 hits in his 6th career multi-hit game (all in June, last: 6/24 at MIN).
Dominic Canzone went 2-for-4, finishing June with a .288 batting average (17x59).
J.P. Crawford went 2-for-5, marking his 25th multi-hit game this season…he finished June batting .297 (30x101) with 8 RBI and 14 walks.
Julio Rodríguez singled in the 5th inning…he hit .289 (33x114) with 6 doubles, 1 triple, 1 homer, 10 RBI, 3 walks, and 6 stolen bases in June.
Donovan Solano went 1-for-3 and worked a 12-pitch walk in the 2nd inning…it tied his longest at-bat of the season (last: 5/13 vs. NYY) and marked the most pitches he has faced when reaching base safely.
Starter George Kirby tossed his 3rd quality start of the season, allowing just 1 run on 3 hits with no walks to his 5 strikeouts thrown across 6.0 innings pitched…he tossed 85 pitches (60 strikes).
Kirby has allowed 1-or-fewer runs across 6.0+ innings pitched in his last 2 starts…it is the 6th time he has done so, last doing so in 3 consecutive starts from July 13-26, 2024.
It also marked the 2nd time this season he allowed no walks (also: 6/6 vs. LAA) and the 39th time in his career…his 39 games without a walk are tied for the 5th-most in Mariners history, alongside Logan Gilbert, trailing Jamie Moyer (59 G), Félix Hernández (56 G) and Hisashi Iwakuma (41 G).
The Mariners bullpen (Gabe Speier, Trent Thornton, and Matt Brash) combined for 3.0 innings of relief, allowing 1 run on 1 hit and struck out 4 batters.
Over the last 18 games (6/11-c), the Mariners bullpen is 5-1 with a 2.14 ERA (15 ER, 63.0 IP) with 54 strikeouts and 23 walks.
Brash continued his franchise-best mark with 19 consecutive scoreless appearances since the start of his season (5/3-c)…he has allowed just 10 hits, 6 walks and has thrown 17 strikeouts across 17.1 innings.
What’s next?
Following tonight’s game one win to kick off this four game series against the Kansas City Royals and seven game homestand, our Seattle Mariners will look to at least force a split of the set in tomorrow’s game two. That game two of the four-game series comes tomorrow, Tuesday, July 1st with a first pitch time of 6:40PM PDT as the Mariners will have Emerson Hancock on the mound to duel against Michael Lorenzen for the Royals in a duel of the right handed pitchers. This game will be broadcast live on ROOT Sports Northwest and will go over the radio airwaves on Seattle Sports (710 AM). This is one of the Mariners’ “Bark at the Park” nights, as fans can bring their four-legged (or less) friends into the ballpark with a special ticket offer. In addition to this, other things taking place at T-Mobile Park include a “Bloodsworks Northwest live painting” as renowned muralist “Henry” will be creating a live painting to be featured in a Mariners Care Foundation live auction, it’s a J-ROD Squad T-Shirt night and a Mariners Value game. To throw out the ceremonial first pitch, legendary UW Golf Coach Mary Lou Muflur will be on hand as she celebrates her retirement.
Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports BlueSky: @circlingseasports.bsky.social
〰️
Instagram: @CirclingSeattleSports Twitter: @CirclingSports Threads: @CirclingSeattleSports Tiktok: @CirclingSeattleSports Facebook: Circling Seattle Sports BlueSky: @circlingseasports.bsky.social 〰️
Check out our previous Seattle Mariners articles here.
Check out our previous articles with writing by Charles Hamaker here.
Check out our previous articles with photos by Eric Hiller here, and his portfolio here.
Support the work of Circling Seattle Sports by checking out our merchandise!