'This one hurts': Mariners dealt multiple gut punches in 10-inning loss

DETROIT -- The first gut punch landed when Julio Rodríguez was forced to exit after aggravating the high right ankle sprain that sidelined him for three weeks. The next blow was absorbed a half-inning later, when Yimi García surrendered a game-tying, two-run homer to Kerry Carpenter, who continued to torment the Mariners, now with six homers in seven career games against them.

And the knockout on Wednesday night was a walk-off double from Akil Baddoo in the 10th inning off Collin Snider that sunk Seattle to its first deficit of the game in a 3-2 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park.

“This one hurts,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said.

The tone and tenor of this one could not have teetered more drastically, given the seven scoreless innings that Bryan Woo twirled and the gritty effort from Rodríguez to line an insurance RBI single after hurting himself in the eighth. That, and Andrés Muñoz kept the game within reach with a clean ninth inning on just 10 pitches, only to have the Mariners go 1-2-3 in the 10th, which prompted Servais to then turn to Snider.

Servais said that Muñoz would’ve remained in the game had Seattle taken a lead, presumably for the two full innings, in what would’ve been the longest outing of his Mariners career.

“If we would have scored,” Servais said. “We talked to [Muñoz] about that, to try to lock it down there. But when you're in that type of game, you've got to get big hits.”

The eighth was their best chance to go for the jugular. After Rodríguez extended the Mariners’ lead to 2-0, which kept the bases loaded, Luke Raley struck out and Mitch Haniger flied out to halt the rally. In between, Rodríguez was pinch-run for by Dominic Canzone immediately after his knock, during a pitching change.

Postgame, Rodríguez said in passing that he was “all good,” but preferred not to speak further. Servais said that it’s possible that Rodríguez will be out of the lineup for Thursday's matinee, but it sounds like another IL stint isn’t in play.

“It's not swelled up or anything like that,” Servais said. “It's more of like a scar tissue thing. He's day to day. We'll see how he is tomorrow. I think it scared him as much as anything, because he felt something.”

Rodríguez tweaked the ankle in that eighth-inning at-bat, Servais said, and was in enough visible pain to be consulted by head athletic trainer Kyle Torgerson. Then, on his RBI knock, he slowly jogged to first base. Earlier in the game, Rodríguez legged out an infield single on a check-swing dribbler, dialing his sprint speed up to 30.1 feet per second (league average is 27.0) then was walking gingerly after the play in foul territory.

Rodríguez was serving as Seattle’s designated hitter for the third game since being activated on Sunday, a role that he intended to remain in until his ankle had healed enough to be able to run more comfortably, as he and the team acknowledged that he wasn’t at 100%.

The risk, in their estimation, was worth the reward, given how strong he looked at the plate leading up to the injury, with a 1.122 OPS in 15 games in July -- and that the Mariners, all season, have needed all the offense they can get.

“He wants to play, you know what I mean?” Servais said. “And like I said, we'll see how he is tomorrow, day to day. I don't think it's anything serious. I hope not. He's not going to hurt it any worse, so to speak. That's what I've been told. So he just kind of has to grind through it. He may need a day off tomorrow, and we'll take it from there.”

After Rodríguez left, García recorded two quick outs then gave up a ground-rule double to Matt Vierling that set up the homer to Carpenter, via a middle-middle fastball in a 2-2 count. Carpenter has now homered three times this series and has a career 1.649 OPS vs. the Mariners.

The final outcome spoiled a stellar start from Woo, who himself nearly had an injury scare when taking a 105 mph comebacker off his left arm in the fifth.

Woo gave up just four singles, with zero walks and six strikeouts, lowering his ERA to 2.06, tied with Atlanta’s Reynaldo López for MLB’s best among 129 pitchers with at least as many as the 74 1/3 innings that Woo has accumulated.