Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning during the regular season you’ll get a fresh, topical story to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.

On Sunday, Mariners rookie Julio Rodríguez did something remarkable: He hit a home run.

The three-run blast was notable not only because it was the first in the highly-touted rookie’s big-league career, but because it gave Seattle a 5–0 lead over the Marlins, which would be more than enough in an eventual 7–3 victory. To date, Rodríguez and fellow top outfield prospect, Jarred Kelenic, haven’t adapted quickly to big-league pitching. But it hasn’t much mattered, because this year’s Mariners lineup has done something last year’s largely couldn’t: score runs in bunches.

The Mariners surprised many last year by winning 90 games and staying in the American League playoff hunt until the last day of the regular season. They did so despite being outscored on the year by 51 runs and trotting out a lineup that ranked at or near the bottom in several offensive categories. A month into the new season—and with some new (and familiar) faces in the mix—that does not appear to be the case in 2022.

In 2021, Seattle had the lowest batting average in the majors (.226), fourth-highest strikeout rate (24.8%) and fifth-lowest slugging percentage (.385). It averaged 4.30 runs per game; only three American League teams were worse at scoring. Of the 12 hitters on the team who had over 150 plate appearances in 2021, only five had a wRC+ above league average (100). Four of them are back in 2022: Ty France (129 wRC+ in 2021), Mitch Haniger (120), J.P. Crawford (103) and Luis Torrens (101).

To this point in 2022, runs have been much less difficult to come by. Despite getting shut out Monday night for the third time this season, the Mariners rank fourth in the AL in scoring (4.43 runs per game) and fourth in the majors (second in the AL) with a 120 wRC+. They also own MLB’s…