SEATTLE -- The call from Mariners broadcaster Aaron Goldsmith on Tuesday night echoed loudly on the airwaves across the Puget Sound region and was as succinct as it was effective.
Eugenio Suárez had just crushed his first homer since rejoining the Mariners in a Trade Deadline blockbuster last week, and the anticipation for when the big slugger would clear the fence for the first time with his not-so-new team was palpable.
“Like he never left Seattle!” Goldsmith bellowed after Suárez’s 37th homer of the season in the fourth inning, which sent the Mariners on their way to an 8-3 win over the White Sox.
Suárez, who’d been 2-for-18 since Thursday’s splashy trade with the D-backs, ambushed a first-pitch cutter from Chicago’s Davis Martin up and over the outer part of the plate, sending it sailing 390 feet and into Edgar’s Cantina beyond left field for a two-run shot, after Josh Naylor reached on a fielding error.
As he approached second base, the third baseman flashed his makeshift binoculars to the home bullpen -- the gesture he metaphorically trademarked when crushing 53 during his last stint in Seattle, from 2022-23 -- before embracing Naylor at the plate, then hoisting the Mariners’ celebratory home run trident, which J.P. Crawford eagerly held while waiting atop the home dugout.
“Obviously, I felt so happy to contribute to my team with that home run right there that gave us a lead,” Suárez said. “But yeah, I think seeing the fans' faces when I got the [trident], that was fun. That was really fun. A good feeling. But for me, a lot more important is to help the team win games.”
It was Suárez’s first in a Mariners uniform since the penultimate day of the 2023 season, yet it was merely one contribution on a night full of them from manager Dan Wilson’s new-look lineup, which also featured a punctuating two-run homer in the seventh from Naylor -- the other prized Deadline acquisition, also acquired from Arizona.
The big blasts from Suárez and Naylor also underscored the length of the Mariners’ far more imposing offense, which also featured a booming solo shot from Dominic Canzone in the second inning and a two-run single from Jorge Polanco in the sixth that was set up by a double steal from the emerging -- and perhaps unforeseen -- speedster Naylor, who is now 8-for-8 in stolen-base attempts since joining the Mariners.
“I've always got to be ready, watching him, because at some point he's going to try to go to third,” Suárez said. “So I've got to have a good jump, too, to be safe at second base. He's always got one step up in front of everybody else. He's a really smart player.”
For good measure, rookie Cole Young added an insurance run just after Naylor with an RBI groundout.
The offensive heroics were set up by another gem from Bryan Woo, who overcame a first-inning homer to Lenyn Sosa and struck out a career-high-tying nine over seven brilliant innings, lowering his ERA to 3.02. Woo surrendered just one additional hit, a double to Kyle Teel in the second, and extended his franchise record with his 22nd straight start to begin the season by clearing at least the sixth inning.
More telling in this specific outing was that Woo was able to rebound immediately after the long ball, having surrendered a career-high-tying four his last time out.
“Solo home runs are, I guess, part of the game now,” Woo said. “Obviously you don't want to give up too many. My last start was definitely frustrating, but just not letting that confidence waver, I think, is the big thing.”
Pitching has been the club’s blueprint in its post-rebuild era, with Woo headlining that group in his first All-Star season, though the Mariners’ bats were well on their way to bridging the gap before the Deadline.
And with Suárez and Naylor joining Cal Raleigh in the midst of a historic season, and Randy Arozarena and Julio Rodriguez -- two of the sport’s four players who’ve achieved a 20/20 season -- a case could be made that the Mariners have assembled one of the AL’s most complete rosters for this stretch run.
The Mariners (61-53) have now won four of their five games since the Deadline and showed no signs of slowing after Monday’s off-day, which ended a stretch of 17 straight games coming out of the All-Star break. With a win on Wednesday, Seattle can advance to nine games above .500 for the first time this season.