Mariners Win THREE In A Row, But I Hope It's Not Too Late.

This is the best three-game stretch of Seattle Mariners baseball we've seen in a long time. It feels like we haven't seen this since the Mariners were a team with a 10-game lead in the AL West. 

Sure, this came after losing four out of five against the Angels and Athletics... But, they came out after that and beat the Oakland Athletics two in a row, and won the series opener in St. Louis against the Cardinals. 

It felt like the right type of baseball, offense was good, pitching got their support, we got insurance runs when needed, and closed out games without much havoc. 

The only concern after all of this... Is it too late? That's the question that matters the most. The answer is unfortunately not that simple, its 50/50. The Mariners are now 4.5 games back of the Houston Astros for the AL West lead, and 4.5 games back of the Minnesota Twins for the final Wild Card spot.

Is it possible the Mariners do make the playoffs and find a last-minute push? Yes. But it's also possible that the Twins or Astros play good enough that the final spot in the division or wild card don't open up... Thats the issue.

Regardless, it's always nice to see your team finish off the season the right way, especially after the disaster we experienced the last 60 days here. The issue? Well, we don't know how much of this team will be back next year, we don't know if this is going to be the same rotation... We don't know about Randy Arozarena, Jorge Polanco, and who will play at third, and many other spots on the team. So yes, it's nice to see this end well, but that doesn't always translate to the next season. 

I hope it’s not too late, I love how this Mariners team has showed up the last 3 games.

— Seattle Mariners ON Tap (@MarinersONTap) September 7, 2024

At the end of the day, it would have been really nice to see this Mariners team find a way to hold onto the lead they had in the AL West, but it just didn't happen. It ended up resulting in Scott Servais being fired, and chaos. 

Let's hope for a hot run to end the year, and a collapse by the Twins or Astros... So yes, it's a 50/50 shot, but that's better than not having a shot at all. 

The Mariners have roughly a 9% chance to make the playoffs according to FanGraphs metrics, so it's truly more like 10/90 chance, but 50/50 is just more realistic when it comes to how the game of baseball happens. 

Fingers crossed it all works out.