The Seattle Mariners are the hottest team in the American League and on the verge of becoming a division leader.
With a 1-0 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, the Mariners won their eighth straight game and moved to a half-game back of the Houston Astros, who are currently playing the Boston Red Sox, for first in the AL West. Should the Astros lose Tuesday, it will be a tie atop the division with seven weeks to go in the regular season.
Advertisement
The Mariners trailed the Astros by as many as seven games in early July.
[Join or create a Yahoo Fantasy Football league for the 2025 NFL season]
The big turning point for the team was the MLB trade deadline, when Seattle picked up the Arizona Diamondbacks’ corner infield with separate deals for third baseman Eugenio Suarez and first baseman Josh Naylor, plus a trade for Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Caleb Ferguson. The Mariners are 10-1 since the deadline passed on July 31.
It was Naylor who came up big Tuesday, delivering the only RBI of the game with a single in the first inning.
Of course, the most valuable player for the game was starting pitcher George Kirby, who struck out seven, walked none and allowed only three hits in seven scoreless innings on 87 pitches. Eduard Bazardo, Gabe Speier and Andrés Muñoz combined for two more scoreless innings out of the bullpen to finish the shutout, the Mariners’ ninth of the season.
Advertisement
A rough stretch for the Astros has coincided with the Mariners’ surge. Houston added at the deadline too, with their Carlos Correa reunion, but a 2-8 stretch in late July and early August opened the door for Seattle. Making matters worse, the Astros had to place All-Star closer Josh Hader on the IL due to a shoulder strain Tuesday.
With a month and a half left in the season, the AL West is shaping up to be a dead sprint between the division’s standard-setter of the past decade and the upstart with the AL MVP favorite and plenty of young talent. For now, Seattle can definitely say momentum is on its side.