Arozarena doesn't believe HBP was intentional after super-slow HR trot

Randy Arozarena is heating up at the right time, and he wasn't willing to potentially miss games down the stretch by retaliating when he was hit by a pitch late in Sunday's series finale with the Texas Rangers.

The Seattle Mariners outfielder blasted a solo homer off reliever Gerson Garabito in the seventh inning to give him a 20-20 season, and he celebrated extensively during his slow trot around the bases. Rangers catcher Jonah Heim appeared to take exception, exchanging words with Arozarena as he crossed home plate.

Arozarena was hit in his next at-bat the following inning by Garabito. As the Mariners' dugout reacted and prepared to run onto the field, Arozarena immediately put a hand up, trying to defuse the situation.

"Not really," Arozarena said through an interpreter when asked if he believed Garabito hit him on purpose, according to Daniel Kramer of MLB.com. "I mean, the situation was a 2-2 count. I think he just tried to throw a sinker a little closer to me. I mean, it hit me, but I don't think it was intentional."

He added: "Especially me being the one they hit, I could be the one being suspended. So I know how important the few games we have (left), just trying to qualify (for the playoffs). So I just tried to keep everybody calm."

Arozarena is one of the league's slowest runners after going deep. His home-run trot ranks 269th fastest in MLB this season with an average speed of 29.54 seconds.

Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said postgame that he didn't believe there was any intent behind his reliever's pitch. It was the fourth time in 23 innings this season that Garabito's hit a batter, and Arozarena was the third Mariner hit that game.

"He got hit. I don't think (Garabito's) going to wait until the fifth or sixth pitch," Bochy said. "He's trying to go in there. It happens in baseball. We got hit in this series, too. So he went down the line and it was over. I didn't see a big deal about it."

The Mariners won the game 7-0 to stay within 2.5 games of the Minnesota Twins for the final wild-card spot. Seattle and Texas have three games remaining in their season series beginning Friday.