By Tim Booth The Seattle Times
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SEATTLE — The afternoon started with Julio Rodríguez robbing a home run with a leaping catch at the wall just five pitches into the game.

It ended with Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena standing and watching, and neither really moving as Aaron Judge provided another reminder that ultimately he is inevitable.

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Relatively quiet for most of the series, Judge loudly delivered the New York Yankees a 3-2 victory over the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, thanks to his 15th homer of the season in the eighth inning that snapped a 2-all tie.

It wasn’t a majestic, towering shot off the bat of Judge that handed the Yankees a series win and the Mariners their fifth loss in six games. Rather, the line drive seemed to never arc. It was a rope that arrived from the hand of Carlos Vargas at nearly 89 mph, left Judge’s bat at 117.7 mph and didn’t stop until it hit the back of the Mariners bullpen 444 feet away.

It was the hardest hit home run at T-Mobile Park since MLB Statcast started tracking exit velocities in 2015.

The homer by Judge came an inning after Paul Goldschmidt’s pinch-hit homer led off the seventh inning against reliever Gabe Speier and provided a deflating conclusion to what was an ugly homestand by the Mariners.

The M’s went 1-5 over the six games. They scored more than three runs only once. Strikeouts were up. Walks were down. Hits were a bit scarcer than they had been over the previous month.

And now a 10-game road trip to San Diego, Chicago (versus the White Sox) and Houston awaits starting Friday.

For most of the day it looked like the combo of Rodríguez and starting pitcher Luis Castillo would be the story for the Mariners. Rodríguez started the day by getting a measure of redemption robbing Trent Grisham of a home run with a leaping catch at the wall in left-center field for the first out of the game. Grisham homered twice in the series opener Monday, with one of those tipping off Rodríguez’s glove and clearing the fence.

Rodríguez later provided the M’s all their offense with a two-out, two-run double in the third inning for a 2-0 lead, a line shot on the first pitch from Yankees starter Will Warren that barely stayed fair as it sliced down the right-field line.