A Grip on Sports: Mariners return to action but neither Julio Rodriguez nor momentum returns with them

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What a bummer. A full house. A 14-game winning streak. The hated Astros in town. And then a buzzkill of a 5-2 loss. In the most Mariner of ways.

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• Friday started with bad news. Julio Rodriguez, he of 81 home runs last Monday night, wasn’t able to answer the bell as the regular season returned. Sore left wrist was the reason. The M’s emotional leader, and, more importantly, a key bat, was not in the lineup.

No problem. Marco Gonzales would stymie Houston. The Mariners’ lineup would do what it does – score just enough runs – and, viola, a 15th consecutive win.

Nice plan. Except Jose Altuve’s plan was better. The diminutive second baseman drove Gonzales’ third pitch of the game over the center-field fence. The 45,290 in T-Mobile fell silent. It was all downhill from there in a 5-2 defeat.

Gonzales hasn’t been all that sharp lately, though he’s found a way to battle through. In a game of this magnitude, however, against a lineup as good as Houston’s, falling behind early was not ideal, especially with one of the more explosive bats in the American League watching from the home dugout.

It’s not the end of the world. It’s not a speed bump on the road to the playoffs. It’s nothing more or less than just one more game in 162 of them. Even if it felt like more, what with the crowd and the winning streak and the All-Star break chatter.

The M’s face the Astros again today. On Sunday as well. July will morph into August. August gives way to September. No matter what happened last night, the rest of the way should be exciting.

• If you ever attended a Spokane Shock game, and a lot of you did, Friday had to be a little bittersweet as well.

The once-proud Arena League franchise collapsed under the ownership of former Seattle Seahawk Sam Adams. All that is left of the franchise’s legacy was on sale at its former downtown offices.

Jerseys. Footballs. Trophies. The history of its Arena2 days. Its Arena championships. Its place in Spokane sports lore. All sold to the highest bidder.

Fans came and bought jerseys. Former founder Brady Nelson sent relatives to buy title trophies. When it was over, the Shock’s decade of dominance in a league that really didn’t want a small-town team to be that good, was over as well.

Actually, that ended a long time ago. Heck, the Arena League went under before returning. The Shock found itself in the Indoor Football League. Then found itself no longer around. But not forgotten.

Friday showed that once again.

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WSU: It’s pretty obvious Jon Wilner, who is as locked in to what’s happening in the Pac-12 these days as anyone, isn’t bullish on the Cougars’ chances if there is more upheaval in the conference. … John Canzano, who is as locked in to what’s happening at Oregon these days as anyone, seems pretty convinced Phil Knight is doing everything he can to find the Ducks a major conference to join. Maybe that will turn out to be the one of which they are already a member. … Knight is not alone. Everyone is shopping right now. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and college football, Colorado returns one of the best tight ends in the conference – and the nation. …There is a bit of irony here. Gavin Newsom is all over UCLA for its radical move to the Big Ten but it was Newsom himself who put a lot of the financial issues in motion. … In basketball news, Oregon State has officially added a grad transfer from USF. … Utah expects to be tougher and more athletic next season.

Shock: We wrote about the memorabilia auction above. We also linked Garrett Cabeza’s story, but we do it again here.

Indians: Spokane’s chances of getting back into the Northwest League playoff race don’t seem good. Back at home Friday night, they fell 7-2 to league-leading Vancouver. Dave Nichols has the coverage.

Soccer: The Military World Cup finished up yesterday. Molly Wisor was at Mead’s United Stadium for the final matches.

Track and Field: Edwin Moses changed the men’s 400-meter hurdles forever, posting times unthinkable until he came nearly 50 years ago. Now Sydney McLaughlin is doing the same for the women’s 400-meter hurdles. She lowered the world record once again yesterday. … Other Americans won in Eugene on Friday.

Mariners: Seattle will have to start another winning streak today after last night’s 5-2 loss. … The 2023 All-Star Game will be at T-Mobile. The M’s revealed the logo Friday. … As we mentioned above, Rodriguez missed the game, though he was on the field and in uniform. … The M’s fans are pumped. So is Kyle Lewis, who returned to the lineup after almost two months on the injured list.

Seahawks: Guess what? Another ranking. This time, players 50-41 on the roster.

Storm: A bad fourth quarter sunk the Storm in a loss at the Mercury. … Briann January was honored at the game.

Kraken: Seattle picked up a winger for a couple mid-range 2023 draft picks.

Sounders: COVID-19 has sidelined Stefan Frei for a while. He’s finally able to return as Seattle faces Colorado.

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• A quick note. Back home to Spokane on Monday morning. Which means we will not be writing once again. Hate to miss sharing our thoughts with you folks, but that’s just the way it is. We will be here tomorrow and we will be back Tuesday. Until later …