Julio Rodriguez homered to become the first player in major league history with 20 or more home runs and 20 or more stolen bases in each of his first four seasons, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Texas Rangers 5-4 on Sunday.

Rodriguez hit a two-run shot in the third inning – his 100th career homer – and the slugging and speedy center fielder also added his 21st stolen base of the season after singling in the fifth inning.

“That’s a very big accomplishment,” Rodriguez told reporters. “I know my family’s very happy, and I’m sure they’re thinking of all the things I had to do to be able to get here. To be able to do it with this team and this organization is awesome. I’m just excited to see where things are going to go from here.”

Rodriguez passed Alex Rodriguez’s previous mark of three seasons and is the third-fastest Mariner to reach 100 career homers behind only A-Rod and Cal Raleigh.

With 100 homers and 106 stolen bases so far, Rodriguez is just the third player to have 100 homers and 100 stolen bases in his first four seasons, with the others being Bobby Bonds and Darryl Strawberry.

Rodriguez brought the crowd to its feet again at the top of the fifth with a great running catch on a fly ball from Rangers third baseman Josh Smith, then flashed his signature “No Fly Zone” sign to the center-field seats.

“His accomplishments at a very young age are pretty impressive,” manager Dan Wilson said. “Congratulations to Julio on that milestone, and what he has done defensively out there for us in center field has been incredible. Another couple of really nice catches today, one right at the wall that was a tough chance, and he just continues to roll. It’s been nothing but outstanding from Julio.

Jorge Polanco added a solo shot in the second, and shortstop J.P. Crawford smacked a two-run blast in the fourth against Rangers starter Jacob deGrom (10-4), who became the fastest pitcher in significant league history to reach 1,800 career strikeouts by games and innings Sunday.

The Rangers kept things close by pushing across three runs against Mariners starter Logan Evans (5-4). Still, they tallied only one run against the Mariners bullpen before closer Andrés Muñoz locked down his 25th save of the season.

The Yankees clinched a playoff spot with 10 games to spare Wednesday night, defeating the Mariners 2-1 in extra innings. The win did not come without controversy, however, as a strange play involving Seattle slugger Julio Rodriguez likely determined the outcome.

In the bottom of the 10th inning with no outs and runners on first and third, Rodriguez was the team’s automatic runner and seemed to have a solid chance of scoring the tying run.

On a 2-1 count, Mariners batter Randy Arozarena lost his grip on the bat and sent it flying right at Rodriguez down the third base line. Rodriguez ran further into foul territory to dodge the bat and took a few moments to gather himself. He did not realize that the play was still live, however, and the Yankees capitalized by picking him off at third. The Mariners did not score and suffered their second loss to New York this week.

“I just saw a bat flying up to my face and I just ran away from it,” Rodriguez said after the game. “And after that, I was just in a little bit of shock, and I didn’t get back to third base in time … After I saw the bat, I thought it was going to be a dead play.”

When bats enter the field and impact the result of a play, they most often interfere with fielders trying to get an out. It is very rare that a bat in play interferes without the ball getting hit, which might explain why the rules do not specify any dead-ball procedure for this sort of instance. Rodriguez reacted to the bat in the same way that he would have if a foul ball had been hit in his direction, which would have given him time to return to the base without incident.

Regardless of the circumstances, the Yankees are now a playoff team that is guaranteed a Wild Card spot at least. With the Orioles struggling late in the season, it is likely that the Yanks will hang on to win the A.L. East division as well. At one point, that seemed inevitable, but New York hasn’t been sharp in the second half either.

Besides slugging outfielders Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, the Yankees have had a frustrating season in which they have oscillated between World Series contender and completely ineffective.

The team’s starting rotation tailed off after a hot start, and Clay Holmes has performed so badly as a closer that the team has had to assume a committee approach to close out games. Against the Mariners on Wednesday, he gave up the game-tying run in the eighth to force extras. Injuries to Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton also crippled the lineup for a time. Between June and August, the Yankees went 39-38 after beginning the season 40-19.

The Yankees have reached an uneasy equilibrium in September to earn some semblance of their former status as a legitimate playoff contender. It seems like every team in the league has weaknesses this year, and thus parity may also help in October. While many of these squads face off in meaningful games to finish out the season, New York will wrap up with a postseason berth in hand and and a growing division lead.

Baseball fans have criticized the Houston Astros after the team’s game Wednesday, claiming that the team instigated a fight with Mariners star Julio Rodriguez. In the midst of a tight division race, the Astros were frustrated after two of their batters were hit in the game Tuesday.

“I’m tired of our guys getting hit,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said before the game Wednesday. “It makes guys a lot bolder when they don’t have to hit.”

Baker’s comments were seen by many as loading the powder keg, which nearly exploded in the bottom of the sixth inning when Astros pitcher Hector Neris charged Rodriguez following a strikeout. Neris seemed intent on taunting Rodriguez but he was quickly held back to prevent him from escalating the matter further. Both benches cleared and it took several minutes to resolve the dispute.

“He’s my friend,” Neris told reporters after the game. “Just, it’s part of the game.”

For his part, Rodriguez said through a spokesperson that he was shocked by Neris’ behavior.

The Astros went on to win the game 8-3, taking the three-game series and a 1.5-game lead in the Wild Card over Seattle. The primary reason for such high tensions was the playoff race, as both teams desperately needed the win in order to earn the last postseason berth. The Rays and Blue Jays have the first two spots, leaving just one for the runner-up in the AL West.

With just a few games remaining for each team, Houston now controls its own destiny in a series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Mariners must try to sweep the Texas Rangers in a four-game set, and even then, the Astros could eliminate them with a sweep of their own. There is an exhaustive list of possibilities from there, but in short, Houston’s series win over Seattle put them in a vastly more comfortable position.

The Seattle Mariners defeated the Oakland Athletics 5-4 Wednesday in a sloppy back-and-forth contest to win their 21st game in the month of August. In doing so, the team set a franchise record for wins in a single month and has catapulted back into the hunt for a division title.

After dropping a game to the A’s Tuesday, the Mariners nearly dropped the series Wednesday when they fell behind 3-0 in the second inning. The team trailed again later on but tacked on two runs in the bottom of the seventh and eventually closed out the game.

“There’s like 60 days in August isn’t there? I wish there was,” Mariners manager Scott Servais told reporters. “What a month.”

Servais went on to compare his team to the 2001 Mariners, one of the greatest teams in MLB history that won 116 games. The team lost in the ALDS that year.

“Twenty-one wins in a month and there was a really special team here that won 116 games one year and they didn’t even do that,” Servais said.

The Mariners’ historic month coincided with slumps for the Astros and Rangers, the two teams that were ahead of Seattle in the AL West standings at the end of July. Going into the final month of the season, the Mariners and Astros are now tied for the division lead with the Rangers one game behind the pair.

Mariners star Julio Rodriguez was enjoying the team’s momentum after its 20th win Monday. The slugger did not participate in the 21st win because of a foot injury.

“It’s really good. I feel like everybody is playing like we all know we could,” Rodríguez said Monday. “It’s been really good seeing everybody having fun, seeing everybody getting good at-bats and getting on base and passing the baton, and getting the big hits when we need them.”