The Mariners Sort of Kind of Have a Chance

Now...just hear me out here. I know this is very unlikely. But as the ninth-best team in the AL, and as a team a game and a half behind Houston, the eighth-best team in the AL, the Seattle Mariners technically have a shot to make their first playoffs since 2001, ending the longest postseason drought in the MLB. It's a bit tricky, but it could happen.

First of all, why the Mariners now? Well...while we weren't looking, the Mariners developed into an alright team. Now it's not just Shed Long playing like a pro, but now J.P. Crawford, Dylan Moore, Sam Haggerty and Kyle Seager are all doing well and providing a solid, scrappy core. Crawford has 37 hits and a 0.9 WAR, and is playing fantastic defensive baseball. Moore has gone from a bench supporter to a full-on lineup threat, as has Haggerty. And Kyle Seager's having his best season in years, despite the recent downturn in the last month. Additionally, Marco Gonzales is an ace, Justin Dunn and Nick Margevicius are strikeout artists, Justus Sheffield and Ljay Newsome are impressive lower-starters, and Yusei Kikuchi is trying his best.

Even better, the imports are doing pretty well too. Luis Torrens, who they got from SD, has become an impressive starting catcher finally, hitting .240. Phil Ervin has been hitting similarly well since getting here from Cincinnati, and has heated up very recently. And Ty France, finally no longer trapped behind Manny Machado, has come ALIVE in the past week, hitting .364 with 6 RBIs and 12 hits. The team didn't have much depth before, but thanks to some trades, it...sort of does now. This team might be better right now than it has all year.

Now. While they are currently one game behind the Astros, they are also headed for a very tricky few series' with San Francisco, San Diego, Oakland, who they've been playing semi-successfully this week, and Houston, which need to be wins to cement any sort of business. Houston, meanwhile, has two series' with the Rangers and one with the Diamondbacks. So Seattle, sadly, has the tougher schedule coming up, and Houston may still hang onto that playoff spot. But if the baseball gods are seeing this, and if they're seeing how hysterical, wonderful, unpredictable and memorable it would be if the ultra-underdog Mariners slid into the playoffs instead of the overachieving, and cheating, Houston Astros...all I'm saying is it would be nice if some sort of miracle happened. 

I don't look for it often, but...if the Mariners catch fire right now and waltz to the playoffs, that'll be one of the few light spots of this very, very dark year.

Coming Tonight- The man they call Donnie Barrels.