SEATTLE — The low screamer drive off Mike Trout’s bat had the trajectory of a one-iron down the middle of the fairway.

As the ball rocketed to center field, Julio Rodríguez never hesitated, sprinting in on the sinking line drive and making a sliding catch in textbook fashion.

It was the sort of play fans had been accustomed to Rodríguez making over his first four seasons in the big leagues.

For the first seven innings of Friday night’s 7-5 loss to the Angels, it was the only Seattle Mariners highlight. Trailing 7-0 after seven innings, the Mariners tried to rally late. They scored two runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth, including Dom Canzone’s two-run homer to left. But with two outs, Rodríguez flew out to end the game.

While he was pleased with making a catch that was far more difficult that it looked, Rodríguez didn’t do his “No Fly Zone” celebration and his excitement was muted.

Such is life when you are playing out the string.

It was just more than three weeks ago when Rodríguez was in Fenway Park and had a similar line drive hit to him off the bat of Roman Anthony in the ninth inning. Instead of sliding feet first and catching the ball at his eye level or just knocking it down since the Mariners had a one-run lead, Rodríguez made an awkward dive forward and it got past him for a triple. Anthony eventually scored to tie the game and the Mariners lost in extra innings.

It was a colossal mistake in a season filled with far too many of them for him and the team.

“I tried some things that didn’t work out, and then I just kind of got back to my basics, the things I do really well on defense,” Rodríguez said before Friday’s game at T-Mobile Park. “I feel like that also helped me to even it out a little bit.”

A perennial Gold Glove and MVP candidate, Rodríguez showed regression in the field and at the plate this season.

Coming into Friday, he had 2.9 wins above replacement per FanGraphs. It’s the lowest fWAR of his career. A year ago, he produced 5.8 fWAR.

Per FanGraphs’ weighted runs created plus stat — an all-encompassing stat that measures a player’s offensive impact through runs created — Rodríguez is at 107 — the lowest of his career. League average is considered 100. A year ago, Rodríguez had a 128 wRC+.

He smashed 10 homers in the month of May and has hit only 10 homers in the four months that followed.

He came into Friday with a .250/.311/.407 slash line with 26 doubles, 22 homers, 70 RBI, 22 stolen bases, 47 walks and 142 strikeouts.

They would be solid numbers for most MLB players. But Rodríguez and Mariners fans expect him to be more than an ordinary MLB player.

“Results-wise, I could have done more,” he said. “I could have impacted the team a little bit more. I know we cannot control results. That this is a game of process and all that, but I believe in my talent. I believe in the way that I play the game, and I just think I have more in the tank. That’s something that I’m gonna try to bring more next year.”

As one of the three key players that underproduced this season, Rodríguez, like Cal Raleigh and Josh Naylor, tried to break down what went wrong with their performance as well as the team’s failure.

“Baseball is hard,” he said. “I wish I had the answers right then and there. But I feel like with time, it kind of showed me. I started being a little bit more late (on pitches). I started chasing a little bit around the zone and little things here and there.”

As for the team’s failure, Rodríguez was blunt.

“When you get hit in the mouth, you either cover up or you do something about it,” he said. “That’s what happened to us. We got hit in the mouth and how did we respond to that? I do believe we have the right pieces. I do believe we’re gonna do the right things to ascend from this. But it’s all about that response. Nobody can avoid getting hit in life or in baseball. But it’s all how you take that hit and move forward. That’s what sets people apart.”

The Mariners got an uneven start from Bryce Miller, who pitched six innings, allowing five runs on six hits with two walks and seven strikeouts.

He was a strike away from a quality start. After allowing a cheap leadoff double to Wade Meckler on a pop up into shallow left center and walking Vaughn Grissom, Miller was on the verge of getting out of the inning unscathed, even after Leo Rivas couldn’t catch a pickoff attempt at second that allowed the runners to move up to second and third.

Miller retired the next two batters without allowing a run to score. After getting up 0-2 on Christian Moore on a pair of elevated fastballs. He went to the fastball again. It was even higher above the strike zone. But Moore was ready for it, sending a deep fly into the Mariners’ bullpen for a three-run homer.

It summed up Miller’s second half of his season.

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