You get hit in the back of the head with a baseball, you miss 18 days, and in your first game back you go 0-for-4 with two punch-outs. Most guys would call that a rough night. Julio Rodríguez called it a setup.
Activated from the seven-day concussion injured list Saturday, Rodríguez served as the Mariners’ designated hitter and batted second against the Giants. For nine innings, the box score told an ugly story — four at-bats, four trips back to the dugout, two of them on strikes. Then the tenth inning happened.
With automatic runner Victor Robles placed at second to open the frame, Colt Emerson bunted him to third. Up stepped Rodríguez. Giants reliever Dylan Smith threw him an outside sweeper, and Rodríguez got just enough of it — a fly ball to left, deep enough to send Robles home. Walk-off. Mariners 4, Giants 3.
The hit that put Rodríguez on the shelf came July 2 against the Angels, when a throw struck him in the back of the head while he was running the bases. The Mariners banked on the All-Star break buying him recovery time, but they didn’t rush the return. Rather than activate him Friday when the second half resumed, the team had Rodríguez run through a full pregame routine — baserunning, hitting off a machine — and monitored how he responded before clearing him.
“Obviously, you don’t want to mess around with head injuries, and they all sort of come in different forms and feel differently for different guys over a period of time,” Mariners general manager Justin Hollander told reporters, including the Seattle Times’ Tim Booth, before Friday’s game.
Before the injury, Rodríguez was hitting .259/.323/.424, tied for the team lead with 14 home runs to go with 15 doubles, 40 RBI, and 12 stolen bases across 87 games. The Mariners’ offense has sputtered all season, and getting their centerpiece back — even in a DH-only role to start — matters more than one quiet night at the plate.
Starter Bryan Woo gave Seattle a solid six innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits with seven strikeouts. Logan Webb was sharper for San Francisco, yielding just two hits across 6⅔ innings, though three runs crossed on his watch. José A. Ferrer pitched a clean tenth to earn the win.
The victory pushed Seattle to 49-50 — still under .500, but only 1.5 games behind the Rangers in the AL West and one game back of Boston for the third wild-card spot, tied with Minnesota. The division is there for the taking if anyone wants it badly enough.
Rodríguez won’t remember the 0-for-4. He’ll remember the flight of that ball to left, Robles crossing the plate, and the crowd at T-Mobile Park letting him know that 18 days was long enough.
