Giants walk off Mariners again; Victor Robles carted off with arm injury

SAN FRANCISCO — They lost the game Sunday, 5-4, and they lost the series, three games to none, to the red-hot Giants.

What hurt the most for the Seattle Mariners during their gut-punch weekend in San Francisco was the agonizing loss of their sparkplug right fielder, Victor Robles.

With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth inning and a runner on first, Robles made an incredible catch running full speed into the netting just as he crashed over a 4-foot-tall wall in foul territory at Oracle Park.

It might be the best catch you’ll see anywhere all season.

It will almost certainly be the bravest.

And it might end up being the most painful.

Clutching his left arm, Robles had to be carted off the field with two outs in the ninth inning. He was in obvious discomfort, and he was immediately taken to the Giants’ medical facility for imaging on his shoulder, Mariners manager Dan Wilson said later.

“It’s something with his shoulder, and we’ll find out more here as we go,” Wilson said.

Immediate results of those medical scans were not known, but the Mariners are bracing for the worst.

“I just noticed he was in pain, and I just called the trainers immediately,” said center fielder Julio Rodríguez, the first person to approach Robles after the catch. “Obviously, he made all that effort … but it’s a high cost.”

Robles has been a difference-maker for the Mariners since taking over as the leadoff hitter last July.

And a lineup that struggled to create consistent production in the season’s first 10 games might have to manage without its top-of-the-order presence for a significant period of time.

The Mariners have already been navigating one key injury (George Kirby) to their pitching staff. Now they might have to make alternative long-term plans to an already thin lineup.

If Robles is out with a significant injury, the Mariners would likely turn to Luke Raley as the primary right fielder, with Rowdy Tellez and Donovan Solano then as the main options at first base. Dominic Canzone is one option to promote from Triple-A Tacoma for outfield depth.

Regardless, the potential loss of Robles looms as a significant one.

“He’s such a force,” Wilson said. “Big hits. The great defense that he plays. And then causing a lot of havoc on the bases and doing what he does out there. He’s a great guy to have at the top of your lineup, and that’s why we’re hoping for the best.”

Adding significant insult to a (potentially) significant injury, on the first pitch after Robles was carted off the field, pinch-hitter Wilmer Flores singled off Gregory Santos to drive in the winning run with two outs in the ninth, giving the Giants the win.

It was the second walkoff victory for the Giants (8-1) over the Mariners in three days.

All that happened in the bottom of the ninth after Randy Arozarena had one of his best moments as a Mariner, when he delivered a clutch hit in the top half of the ninth with a two-out, two-strike double down the left-field line to score Robles from second and tie the score at 4-4.

But the ending here Sunday serves as a neat — albeit painful — summation of the Mariners’ season so far. Even when something good happens, something worse knocks ‘em back.

At 3-7, the Mariners are off to their worst 10-game start since 2017. They begin a six-game homestand against the AL West rival Astros on Monday night. The division-leading Texas Rangers come to town over the weekend.

“We’re only, what, 10 games into this thing? We’ve got a long way to go,” Wilson said. “It’s just time to regroup, get back home [for] a couple division opponents and take it from there.”

Rodríguez, too, pushed back on the notion that the Mariners are in rough shape this early in the season.

“The way that I see it, [the Giants] are a really good team, and we’re playing really good ball. Like, they’re one of the hottest teams in the MLB, and we were neck-and-neck and they have [home] field advantage,” Rodríguez said. “I think it would have been a different story if we were playing at home. But that’s just it. Ain’t nothing to regroup about. Ain’t nothing to say, ‘Oh, like, do this better or do this-that.’

“We’re playing [a] really good ballgame. And if you ask me, I think we’re a really good spot 10 games in.”

Rodríguez homered out to left in the first inning, Cal Raleigh homered out to right in the third off Giants starter Jordan Hicks, and Bryan Woo was sharp through three innings as the Mariners built a 2-0 lead.

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But Mike Yastrzemski hit a three-run home run to spoil the homecoming for Woo, an Oakland native who grew up rooting for the Giants.

The Giants, off to their best start since 2003, scored their four runs off Woo in the fourth inning.

Heliot Ramos singled sharply to right field, driving in Willy Adames from second. Adames slid home safely after the throw from Robles was late.

On the next pitch, Woo threw a 96-mph fastball that caught too much of the plate, and Yastrzemski sent it over the fence in left field for an opposite-field, three-run homer to give the Giants a 4-2 lead.

It was the first homer of the season for Yastrzemski, a 2012 Mariners draft pick (he didn’t sign with Seattle) and the grandson of Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski.

Woo’s final line: six innings, five hits, four runs, one walk, six strikeouts.

“I just wanted to come out and set the tone, you know,” said Woo, whose fastball velocity notably ticked up to 98 mph early in the game. “[After] dropping the first two games [as a team here], I felt like we need some type of spark plug, some, some energy, some pick-me-up, so I just tried to be that.”

In the sixth inning, Ryan Bliss had the Mariners’ first hit with runners in scoring position, sending a sharp single to left field to score Raley from second.

In the eighth, the Mariners had a chance to bring in the tying run after pinch-hit singles from Solano and Mitch Garver to lead off the inning.

But Dylan Moore popped up for the first out and Bliss grounded into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

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