SEATTLE -- This place has been waiting to erupt for 24 long years, way back to when Julio Rodríguez was still in diapers in the Dominican Republic and eons away from his baseball journey that would bring him to the moment that Seattle has been starved for on Saturday night.

And the palpable anticipation was fittingly delivered by the player who’s become a true showman of sports in this city.

Rodríguez emphatically put Seattle on the board with a 413-foot solo homer in the fourth inning that broke a scoreless tie in Game 1 of the American League Division Series vs. the Tigers.

It marked the Mariners’ first run at T-Mobile Park in a postseason game since Game 2 of the AL Championship Series on Oct. 18, 2001 -- when Rodríguez’s manager (Dan Wilson) was the team’s catcher and his longtim

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