Randy Arozarena celebrates his homer after reaching milestone

The reaction from Randy Arozarena wasn’t about the specific homer; though, the prodigious blast off a 3-0 fastball from Rangers’ reliever Gerson Garabito was impressive, smacking off the facing of the upper deck in left center.

MLB Statcast measured the blast with a 110-mph exit velocity and traveling a distance of 432 feet.

No, Arozarena’s immediate celebration — slowly leaving the box and watching the line drive continue to carry and rise at a high rate of speed, turning to the dugout with the bat still in his hand and his arms raised and then flipping the bat end over end before finally starting his lengthy home run trot was about what homer meant.

It gave him a fourth consecutive season of reaching at least 20 homers and 20 stolen bases.

“This was a goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the season, something personally I wanted to achieve,” he said through interpreter Freddy Llanos.

Why?

“I had done it three consecutive times, and I wanted to see if I could do it a fourth time,” he said. “That was the reason why I set this goal.”

He is the first MLB player to reach the 20/20 threshold as a rookie and the replicate the feat for the next three seasons. Only he and Cleveland’s Jose Ramirez have posted at least 20 homers and 20 stolen bases in each of the last four seasons.

“Next year, I might have to do a different goal,” Arozarena said. “Maybe go higher.”

So like 50/50?

“You know, 50-50 might be a little hard,” he said with a smile. “Someone can do it. My goal right now is get to the World Series. I want to get to the World Series with Seattle. We are in a good position right now. We just need to keep fighting and do whatever we can to get to the playoffs.”

The Rangers, specifically catcher Jonah Heim, didn’t appreciate Arozarena’s celebration of meeting his goal. He had words for Arozarena as he crossed home plate and then followed him a few more steps, continuing to voice his displeasure.

Arozarena didn’t seem to notice, but teammates Julio Rodriguez and J.P. Crawford did. Words were exchanged briefly and catcher Mitch Garver, who was on deck, tried to calm the situation.

“I think it’s diffused,” Garver said. “We’re playing for something right now. They’re the reigning World Champions and maybe they took offense to Randy hitting that home run, or however he did it. But we know what the bigger picture is here. We need to win ballgames.”

When Arozarena came to the plate in the eighth inning with the Mariners leading 7-0, he was plunked in the elbow by a 2-2 sinker from Garabito.

While several of his teammates jumped to the top step of the dugout and objected to Arozarena being plunked, he remained calm and coolly put his hand up and told them to remain in the dugout.

“It means a lot that they were ready to defend me,” Arozarena said. “It was a tense moment. I got hit right after a home run. But I think I’m one of the top guys with being hit with the ball this season. But it means a lot.”

Indeed, he leads MLB with 21 hit by pitches this season. He normally is highly irritated when getting hit, but Arozarena kept the larger picture in mind.

“It was just all experience, just trying to stay in the game,” he said. “I know how important I am for this lineup, so just keep it cool and hopefully, and I’m glad that nothing started from there.”

The Mariners can’t have a key player suspended or hurt due to an altercation with so few games left in the season.

“If a fight happens, you get suspended and you miss a couple games,” Arozarena said. “And with me being the one who was hit, I could be the one being suspended. I know how important the few games we have are and trying to qualify for the playoffs, so I just tried to keep everybody calm.”

It helped that Arozarena didn’t think it was intentional.

“The situation was a 2-2 count and I think he just tried to get a sinker a little closer to me,” he said. “It hit me, but I don’t think it was intentional.”

Also

• Victor Robles was removed from the game after the seventh inning due to discomfort in his upper right leg. Manager Dan Wilson didn’t provide many details, but said it wasn’t the hip flexor issue that Robles dealt with earlier in the season.

“It’s more on the outside of the leg, but I think he should be fine by Tuesday,” Wilson said.

Robles was limping after jogging slowly to first base on a ground out to shortstop in the fourth inning.

He had three hits in the game, giving him 13 multi-hit games since August 17 — the most in MLB. Over that span, Robles is batting .444 (32-for-72) with eight doubles, a homer, 12 RBI, 15 runs scored, six walks, 12 strikeouts, five hit-by pitches and 12 stolen bases.

• With no game on Monday, the Mariners have re-slotted their rotation for the upcoming three-game set with the Yankees, moving Logan Gilbert up a day to pitch in the series finale. It also slots Gilbert to pitch vs. the Astros on the upcoming road trip. The pitching probables for this very important series:

Tuesday (6:40 p.m.) — Luis Gil, RHP vs. Bryan Woo, RHP

Wednesday (6:40 p.m.) — Nestor Cortes, LHP vs. Bryce Miller, RHP

Thursday (1:10 p.m.) — Clarke Schmidt, RHP vs. Logan Gilbert, RHP