The Seattle Mariners are making the Houston Astros feel the heat in the race for the one guaranteed playoff spot in the AL West.
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Following Wednesday’s series-clinching 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres, the M’s are 72-62 and breathing down the division-leading Astros’ necks. In fact, Seattle is even closer to Houston than it is to the two teams ahead of them in the American League wild card standings.
At the same time, the Mariners have put some healthy distance between themselves and their challengers for the third and final wild card.
Here’s a closer look at where the M’s sit in the AL postseason picture.
AL West
The Mariners applied pressure on the Astros (72-60) with Wednesday’s victory. Seattle is now just one game back of Houston, which still has a 5:10 p.m. home game against the MLB-worst Colorado Rockies (38-94) to play.
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The M’s will be off Thursday while the Astros are set to finish their series with Colorado, which could either be a good thing or a bad thing for Seattle. If Houston loses both Wednesday and Thursday, the two rivals will be tied atop the division going into play Friday. If the Astros win each of those games, they’ll be up two games. Houston’s lead wouldn’t change if it split the contests.
The Astros have lost six of their last nine games, while the Mariners have rebounded from a five-game skid with four wins in their last six games.
AL wild card
First, let’s address the playoff spot the Mariners currently occupy.
With Wednesday’s win, Seattle increased its lead for the third wild card to 3 1/2 games over the Kansas City Royals (68-65), and five games up over both the Texas Rangers (67-67) and Cleveland Guardians (66-66). The Guardians beat Tampa Bay earlier Wednesday, while the Royals and Rangers had games set for the evening.
Meanwhile, the top two wild cards are owned by the Boston Red Sox (74-60) and New York Yankees (73-60), who are respectively one and 1 1/2 games ahead of Seattle. The Yankees beat Washington on Wednesday, while Boston took care of Baltimore.
Up next
The Mariners are headed to Cleveland, where they’ll play a three-game series that starts at 4:10 p.m. Friday. That will open a 10-day, nine-game road trip that includes three games apiece at Tampa Bay (64-69) from Sept. 1-3 and Atlanta (61-72) from Sept. 5-7.
Catch Mariners Radio Network coverage of Friday’s game against the Guardians beginning at 3 p.m. with the pregame show.
The Astros will continue their current homestand with a four-game series against the Angels (62-70) starting Friday, followed by three games with the Yankees.
Before going to Houston, the Yankees will play four games in Chicago against the lowly White Sox (48-84) beginning Thursday.
The Red Sox will wrap up their road trip against the Orioles (60-72) on Thursday, then host the Pirates (58-75) and Guardians for a pair of three-game series at Fenway Park.
The Royals will begin a nine-game homestand Friday with three games against the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers (78-56).
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