Another door is opening for the Seattle Mariners in their quest to get back to the playoffs.

Unheralded reliever the “glue” for Seattle Mariners’ bullpen

The Boston Red Sox fell to the New York Yankees 5-3 on Saturday for third straight loss, putting the Mariners just one-half game behind Boston for the second wild card berth. With a win on Saturday night against the Los Angeles Angels, the M’s can make that tie.

Seattle, which is tied for first place in the AL West and for the AL’s third wild card berth with the Houston Astros, can also stand alone atop its division at the end of Saturday with a win and a Houston Astros loss to the Atlanta Braves. A first division championship since 2001 would be the Mariners’ preferred path to the playoffs, but another wild card berth coming into play at least widens the club’s path to the postseason, which looked more like a three-team race with Houston and Texas for the AL West title and final wild card berth at the start of the week.

The Mariners and Red Sox split their season series 3-3, so a potential tiebreaker in the wild card standings would come down to the each team’s intradivision record, which makes the Red Sox losing to the Yankees even more helpful to Seattle. The Mariners currently hold a slim lead in the tiebreaker criteria with a .617 winning percentage against the AL West at 29-18, while Boston has a .600 winning percentage against the AL East at 27-18.

The Mariners can clinch the second tiebreaker against Boston with any combination of wins against the AL West and Red Sox losses against the AL East that add up six, which includes Seattle’s game Saturday night against the Angels. Find the remaining head-to-head tiebreaker criteria here.

While another Red Sox loss is ultimately helpful to the Mariners’ overall hopes of reaching the playoffs, the potential drawback is that if the Mariners were to reach the playoffs with the second wild card berth, they could end up facing a Yankees squad that outscored them by 17 runs and won five of six games in their season series. And the three-game series would start with two at Yankee Stadium.

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