‘I think it’s everything you dream of.’ Top prospect Jarred Kelenic homers for first career hit in Mariners win over Cleveland
Jarred Kelenic loudly announced his arrival Friday night in Seattle.
After going hitless in his major league debut Thursday, then striking out on a check swing in the first at-bat of his second game, the 21-year-old outfielder unloaded three consecutive extra-base hits.
The show Kelenic — Seattle’s top prospect and No. 4 prospect in all of baseball — put on at T-Mobile Park only one day after his promotion from Triple-A Tacoma gave the crowd a electrifying preview of what Mariners baseball could look like for years to come.
His first big league hit was — of course — a home run.
Kelenic saw one pitch from Cleveland starter Aaron Civale in his second at-bat before he turned on a low fastball and torched it 403 feet over the wall in right center for a two-run homer that gave the Mariners a 3-0 lead in the third.
“I think it’s everything you dream of,” Kelenic said on a postgame video call. “To be able to share this with my parents and my friends and other family members is huge, and it’s something I’ll never forget.”
He hurried around the bases, and it wasn’t until others in the dugout told him to walk back up the steps that he realized the fans were still on their feet cheering for a curtain call.
“I didn’t know what was going on until I realized that everyone was standing up,” Kelenic said. “But, that’s something I’ve always imagined. … It was perfect.”
It was surely fitting Kelenic’s first major league knock was a home run. Last week in his debut with Tacoma he homered for both his first and second career Triple-A hits. His first hit with High-A Modesto in 2019 was also a home run.
“He’s gifted,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said. “There’s no question about it. Very strong. Jarred’s got a great rhythm at the plate. You talk about hitters and short swings and having power, but you’ve got to have rhythm, and he has outstanding rhythm at the plate and that’s what allows him to see pitches, recognize pitches and control the strike zone the way he does.
“A lot to get excited about. Big night for him tonight, and his family and our team, quite frankly. It’s loud in here, guys are excited, they know what he can bring and he’s going to continue to have fun, that’s for sure.”
But, Kelenic didn’t stop with the homer. His next at-bat in the fifth, down 1-2 to Civale, he smoked a low slider to right center and beat the throw to second for a hustle double.
Then in the seventh, he worked a full count against Phil Maton, and pushed an inside fastball into shallow left, scoring speedy Sam Haggerty from second to give the Mariners what was a 5-1 cushion at that point.
Kelenic looked back at the dugout and clapped after stretching the hit into another double.
Moments later, he pumped his fist as he scored on Mitch Haniger’s team-leading 11th home run — which is also tied for the American League lead — to score Seattle’s seventh run of the game.
“Ever since I was young, my dad always taught me that when you make contact it’s always a double out of the box, so that’s the same mentality I’ve had ever since I was young,” Kelenic said. “And I think that you saw tonight, especially on the first double, I feel like those are iffy if the outfielder is going to get to it in time and make a good enough throw, but if I can put some pressure on him early when he peeks at me coming around first base, he may overthrow it and I get to third, and now I’m in scoring position for the guy behind me.
“And like you saw on the second double, they gave Mitch a good pitch to hit and he drove it out of the park and that basically sealed it. All around I thought it was a good team win tonight.”
Kelenic’s production — he finished 3-for-4 with two runs scored, the two doubles, home run and three RBI, and became the first Mariner to homer for his first career hit since reigning AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis in 2019 — certainly played a part in igniting Seattle’s sluggish offense, which pieced together little during the five-game losing streak the club carried into Thursday.
The Mariners finally broke that troubling streak with a convincing 7-3 win over Cleveland, and Kelenic at the center of it.
Kyle Seager hit a solo home run — his eighth homer of the season — in the first inning, and Luis Torrens drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh ahead of Kelenic’s second double and Haniger’s homer, but it was Kelenic’s night that provided the spark.
“Nice to get that offense going tonight,” Servais said. “It’s been a rough stretch for us the last four or five games and certainly what Kelenic provided tonight was huge. Seags got us going with the early home run, but the quality of at-bats Jarred threw out there tonight got us going, certainly with the home run, the first hit and everything around that.
“It’s going to be fun to watch. Sometimes one player can make a difference, just how guys go through their at-bats and the emotion and excitement that he can bring on a daily basis.”
This story was originally published May 14, 2021 at 11:25 PM.
