Mariners' Eugenio Suarez took one swing that may snap his funk

Billy Heyen

Mariners' Eugenio Suarez took one swing that may snap his funk image

The home run might have been meaningless on the scoreboard.

To pull from down 3-0 to within 3-1 in the ninth inning against a dominant closer is rarely going to be enough to actually mount a mighty comeback.

But when Eugenio Suarez hit a homer in that exact scenario for the Seattle Mariners on Saturday, it felt more important than that.

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Because since his high-profile trade deadline acquisition, Suarez has been brutal.

With Arizona this season, Suarez had hit 36 home runs in 106 games while batting .248.

Even after his homer on Saturday, Suarez is batting .143 in 15 games with the Mariners with just two home runs.

Clearly, Seattle needs him to be better. Suarez was meant to be the prize of the deadline season.

The Mariners' other pickup from the Diamondbacks, Josh Naylor, has been awesome. Suarez, not so much.

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It's not that he's unfamiliar. He spent two previous seasons with the Mariners, in 2022 and 2023. All indications were that he was excited to return to Seattle.

But for whatever reason, Suarez has been in a funk.

Taking Edwin Diaz deep isn't easy. The Mets closer is a superstar out of the bullpen.

So for Suarez to do that could finally be the moment that starts a hot streak for him.

The Mariners are certainly hoping that's the case, because they need Geno to be his best self down the stretch.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle