J-Rod will undergo MRI on injured right ankle, but X-rays negative?

SEATTLE -- The Mariners got a much-needed offensive outburst and a much-needed solid start from Bryan Woo. But their 6-4 win over the Astros -- which snapped a season-high five-game skid and moved Seattle back into a tie for first place in the AL West -- didn’t come without a sour note.

With a runner on third and two outs in the top of the sixth inning, Yordan Alvarez laced a shot to center field. Mariners star Julio Rodríguez covered 89 feet to get within reaching distance, jumping into the wall with his right leg outstretched. He got his glove on the ball, but couldn’t hold on as the rest of his body hit the wall, and his left foot got caught enough to leave a hole in the padding.

As he fell to the warning track, Rodríguez grabbed at his right ankle, and after Dylan Moore got the ball back into the infield on what ended up being an RBI triple, he and Victor Robles immediately began waving for trainer Taylor Bennett and manager Scott Servais to come out.

After a delay, the two took Rodríguez out, though the center fielder walked off under his own power. Robles moved from right field to center, Luke Raley went from first base to right and Ty France came in to play first and bat in Rodríguez’s spot.

The Mariners ended up bolstering their lead thanks to a three-run home run off the bat of Raley in the bottom of the sixth, and Andrés Mu?oz struck out the side in the ninth to earn his 16th save of the season.

“Obviously, we’re going through it right now,” Raley said. “So to get one and hopefully be able to build off of it is really important.”

And after the game, Seattle got a dose of good news, with X-rays on Rodríguez’s right ankle coming back negative. Servais said that Rodríguez would undergo an MRI exam, but that for the moment, he is considered day to day.

“Certainly there’s a lot of adrenaline going on at that moment,” Servais said. “It was a heck of a collision running into the wall. That wall’s not moving, and that’s a big dude who’s really moving fast. You’re concerned once you get out there.

“I think once he started putting a little weight on it and realized that he just twisted it, got caught up in the wall.”

Rodríguez already has dealt with one injury scare on a play in the outfield this month, when he caught his thumb on the turf while stumbling to make a catch. He also left the Mariners’ July 6 game against the Blue Jays with right quad tightness, and didn’t start the following day.

The close calls have come at the same time as a resurgence for the two-time All-Star, who’s hitting .375 in July with a 1.122 OPS. Coming into the series finale, Rodríguez had hit .459 over his past 12 games with four home runs and eight RBIs.

“Hopefully, we can escape a long absence from him,” Servais said. “He’s been swinging the bat so well here over the last couple weeks. We’re going to need him. He’s pivotal to our offense turning the corner.”

Rodríguez hasn’t had a trip to the injured list since July 2022, when he was hit by a pitch and landed on the 10-day IL with a bruised right wrist.

“Hopefully, he’s OK,” Raley said. “You don’t want to see that happen to anyone, but especially a guy that runs center field every day for us, and an elite guy like that.”

The injury put a damper on what was otherwise the brightest day in a slow start to the second half for Seattle. After managing just two runs and seven hits in the first two games of this set against Houston -- and falling out of first place in the AL West for the first time since May 11 – the Mariners broke out with five extra-base hits in the first six innings and finished with nine knocks.

Moore opened the scoring with a two-run triple in the second inning. Jorge Polanco hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, and Raley delivered the telling blow in the sixth, hammering a first-pitch sweeper from Seth Martinez after Polanco and Mitch Haniger executed a perfect hit-and-run to put runners on the corners.

“A lot of good at-bats up and down the lineup,” Servais said. “That’s good to see. We kept the strikeouts in check today; when you put the ball in play, you’ve got a chance, and we did that today.”