SEATTLE – The fear of incurring another injury that could keep him on the injured list combined with the frustration of having already been hit by pitches three times in his rehab stint finally bubbled over for Victor Robles.

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Once the autograph signings, posing for pictures and cardboard slides down the grassy hill were over, the Mariners still had a rather important game to play on Sunday night.

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Julio Rodríguez walked out of the seats at Howard J. Lamade Stadium and down the tunnel. He made a right turn around the outside of the stadium, and as the crowd gathered began to grow and started following him, Rodríguez made an announcement.

NEW YORK – The nature of this Mariners team seems clear by now. Throw an ace, a Cy Young winner, someone considered an elite arm and there’s a good chance the M’s are going to figure out a way to win that game.

Julio Rodríguez exists in a strange little shadow. It is there when the roof of T-Mobile Park is open and present when it is closed. It lingers when he homers just as it does when he strikes out.

BALTIMORE – Excuse the Mariners if they would like to be done with anything related with Baltimore this season.

BALTIMORE – Eugenio Suárez couldn’t have asked for his return to Seattle to go better, with one exception.

BALTIMORE – Put enough stress on your pitchers to be perfect and eventually something is going to break.

Saturday, 4:16 p.m., Scoreboard control room at T-Mobile Park.

BALTIMORE – By this point of his career, George Kirby has made enough starts and amassed enough evidence that conclusions can start to be drawn.

Given the length of a Major League Baseball season — 162 games over a six-month span — the endless variances in performance from players and teams and the changes in personnel due to injury or attrition, the oft-used cliché — “it’s not only who you are playing but when you are playing them” is relied upon often by players, coaching staffs and front offices when analyzing schedules and results.