If the Mariners beat the A’s four times in a row, and the Cheating Astros lose to the Rangers four times in a row, then you can say there’s a sliver of a chance. I’m just glad Houston didn’t get the opportunity to celebrate a playoff berth on our field.

There’s also still allegedly a chance at the Wild Card, if the Mariners win out and Toronto loses out. All told, according to ESPN, the Mariners currently have a 0.2% chance of making the playoffs. I’m not really a betting man – as you well know – but I’d have no problem putting up everything I own on the Mariners’ season concluding this Sunday.

It was a fun ride while it lasted, but like every year (except four) in the team’s history, it’s going to end without the playoffs.

Monday’s game was rather inspiring! We had a good ol’ fashioned pitcher’s duel, between Marco Gonzales and Lance McCullers. Nothing but zeroes through the first six and a half innings, before we put up four unearned runs in the bottom of the seventh, off of a Ty France double and an Evan White 3-run home run. As if that wasn’t enough of an insurmountable lead, Kyle Seager chipped in with a 2-RBI single in the eighth to really hammer this one home. Gonzo ended up throwing eight shutout innings, giving up 7 hits and 1 walk, while striking out 6. The shutout wasn’t meant to be, as Joey Gerber gave up a run in the ninth (we’re still waiting on that first shutout for this pitching staff), but I’ll take a 6-1 victory every single time.

What I got on Tuesday, instead, was a 6-1 defeat! Were you NOT paying attention?! Ljay Newsome battled through 4.1 innings of 1-run ball, but the bullpen is what it is, and sometimes that means it gives up 5 runs in 4.2 innings. Kyle Seager and J.P. Crawford had two hits apiece, but that was about it for the offense.

To get just our third victory against the Cheating Astros of the season – and our first 3-game series victory over them since 2018 – it required a massive team effort last night. Nick Margevicius was a champ, going 6 shutout innings (giving up 3 hits and 3 walks) while getting out of numerous jams along the way. I’ll be interested in what the team does with him next year. As a fifth starter, he seems like a pretty good fit. He might project more as a bullpen/long-relief/spot-starter type of guy though. We’ll see. Anyway, Kyle Lewis, Seager, and France all had two hits apiece, with Seager and France providing all the RBI in this one. We led 3-0 going into the ninth, before Yoshihisa Hirano scared the bejesus out of everyone. He gave up 2 runs in acquiring his fourth save of the season, but did just enough to preserve the 3-2 victory.

Our record is 25-31 now, which is actually a half game behind the Angels, who have gotten hot of late! We’re still tied for tenth in the draft order next year, with four games to go: an off-day today, followed by a Friday night game, a Saturday doubleheader, and a Sunday matinee, all down in Oakland. I’ll be honest, I hope we lose all four. We’ve done what we came to do, we got some guys some valuable experience, but now is the time to do some serious tanking. We can still pretty easily leap over about six teams to get a Top 5 draft pick! I think; I’ll be honest, I haven’t looked at every team’s schedule here to do the specific math.

I won’t sweat it too much, though. If the Mariners are going to rebound into a championship-calibre team, then the pieces we need to do that are already in the organization. I just think, you know, you can never have too many Top 5 draft picks, right? Right.

So, lose away, Mariners! You have my permission (not that you’ve needed it all these decades).