Arozarena welcomes old team with 1st homer in new city

SEATTLE -- Randy Arozarena said that he hadn’t spoken much at all to his former teammates since the splashy Trade Deadline deal that sent him from Tampa Bay to Seattle, which made an extended in-person catchup in the visiting clubhouse at T-Mobile Park on Monday afternoon all the more meaningful.

“I have so much respect for him,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said before Tampa Bay opened a three-game series in Seattle. “I know he’s pretty motivated to play against us.”

Indeed, Arozarena -- mired in a 3-for-36 skid -- broke out of his funk in a big way, with a massive, three-run homer that sent Seattle on its way to a 5-1 win against his former team.

After striking out on three vicious hacks in his first at-bat, Arozarena ambushed a first-pitch cutter from Ryan Pepiot his next time up, crushing the outside-corner offering 376 feet and way up into the right-field bleachers for a three-run blast.

He soaked up the entire moment, too, taking a lengthy 29.7 seconds to trot the bases before high-fiving Julio Rodríguez and Cal Raleigh, who each reached just prior to set up the three-run shot.

Arozarena’s big blast was his 17th of the season but only his second since the trade -- and his first at T-Mobile Park in a Mariners uniform. Seattle acquired him to be a middle-order force, yet Arozarena entered Monday with just a .318 slugging percentage with his new team, way below his .441 mark over parts of five seasons with the Rays.

Part of his struggles have certainly been an adjustment to a completely new life, especially given how at home Arozarena felt with Tampa Bay. He had an entire section of stands dedicated to him at Tropicana Field, known as “Randy Land,” which was a reflection of Arozarena blossoming into the Rays’ most popular player.

He even spent his final night in those bleachers, alongside his family and mingling with fans, before flying to join the Mariners in Chicago the next day.

“He should feel comfortable for what he meant to myself, the organization, his teammates,” Cash said. “I’ve continued to say that a lot of the success over the last four or five years, Randy’s been right in the middle of it.”

Arozarena was also hit by a 95.3 mph fastball from Pepiot in a 2-2 count during his next at-bat and showed visible frustration to the point where Rays catcher Ben Rortvedt immediately approached him to cool things down. It was the fifth time Arozarena had been hit by a pitch in his past five games. That moment, though, proved inconsequential to the final outcome.