SEATTLE — The afternoon started with Julio Rodríguez robbing a home run with a leaping catch at the wall just five pitches into the game.

It ended with Rodríguez and Randy Arozarena standing and watching, and neither really moving as Aaron Judge provided another reminder that ultimately he is inevitable.

Relatively quiet for most of the series, Judge loudly delivered the New York Yankees a 3-2 victory over the Mariners on Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Park, thanks to his 15th homer of the season in the eighth inning that snapped a 2-all tie.

It wasn’t a majestic, towering shot off the bat of Judge that handed the Yankees a series win and the Mariners their fifth loss in six games. Rather, the line drive seemed to never arc. It was a rope that arrived from the hand of Carlos Vargas at nearly 89 mph, left Judge’s bat at 117.7 mph and didn’t stop until it hit the back of the Mariners bullpen 444 feet away.

It was the hardest hit home run at T-Mobile Park since MLB Statcast started tracking exit velocities in 2015.

The homer by Judge came an inning after Paul Goldschmidt’s pinch-hit homer led off the seventh inning against reliever Gabe Speier and provided a deflating conclusion to what was an ugly homestand by the Mariners.

The M’s went 1-5 over the six games. They scored more than three runs only once. Strikeouts were up. Walks were down. Hits were a bit scarcer than they had been over the previous month.

And now a 10-game road trip to San Diego, Chicago (versus the White Sox) and Houston awaits starting Friday.

For most of the day it looked like the combo of Rodríguez and starting pitcher Luis Castillo would be the story for the Mariners. Rodríguez started the day by getting a measure of redemption robbing Trent Grisham of a home run with a leaping catch at the wall in left-center field for the first out of the game. Grisham homered twice in the series opener Monday, with one of those tipping off Rodríguez’s glove and clearing the fence.

Rodríguez later provided the M’s all their offense with a two-out, two-run double in the third inning for a 2-0 lead, a line shot on the first pitch from Yankees starter Will Warren that barely stayed fair as it sliced down the right-field line.

But the M’s managed only three hits after Rodríguez’s double, and no base runner advanced beyond second. The M’s also played without shortstop and leadoff hitter J.P. Crawford after he was unexpectedly scratched about an hour before first pitch without any reason provided.

It again put immense pressure on the pitching staff to be nearly perfect.

Castillo wasn’t flawless, but he was twirling a shutout into the sixth inning despite giving up some loud, hard contact.

Five of the first seven balls put in play by New York off Castillo topped 100-mph exit velocity. Yet only two of those swings fell for hits, and Castillo was able to counter some of the loud contact by getting the Yankees to swing through a number of pitches early in the game.

Castillo finished with 16 whiffs in his 93 pitches, but 12 came in the first three innings. He struck out Judge twice, including a 3-2 fastball in the third inning after 10 consecutive off-speed pitches across his first two plate appearances. He also got Judge waving at a slider in the sixth — two of Castillo’s six strikeouts on the day.

But the shutout disappeared in the span of two batters with two outs in the sixth when Anthony Volpe and Jasson Domínguez ripped consecutive doubles to cut the New York deficit to one run at 2-1.

Goldschmidt struck in the seventh, and Judge reminded everyone of his powerful presence in the eighth.

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