Two steps forward, one step back. Normally, in baseball, winning 2/3 of your games is a great thing; it’s almost a guaranteed divisional win! But, that only works if you’ve been doing it from Day 1. It doesn’t really do a whole lot for you if you’re six games under .500 with around 17% of your games left to play. At this rate, we’ll get back to even with like a game or two left to go!

I guess it beats the alternative; losing 2/3 of your games. Regardless, it feels like too little, too late, but come with me as we go through the motions.

The M’s beat the Cubs 2 out of 3 times over the weekend, then came back and beat the Phillies 2 out of 3 times. I think the encouraging thing about it is the fact that the A.L. West teams around us continue to lose (thereby keeping us in the hunt). But also, it’s encouraging because the Cubs and Phillies are really good! And, for once, it feels like the Mariners can hang with teams like them.

In spite of how the series ended – because the M’s can’t help but get their shit kicked in at least once a series – the Mariners looked impressive!

On Monday, we had a 9-2 victory. Logan Gilbert was solid (5 innings, 2 runs) and the bullpen was lights out. More importantly, the offense took it to one of the best pitchers in the league in Zack Wheeler (8 runs in 4 innings). This was also – not for nothing – the Cal Raleigh 3-Homer Game. That bumped him up to 17 on the year and hopefully jumpstarts a nice little hot streak.

On Tuesday, it was a much more reasonable 4-1 victory. George Kirby shoved (7.2 innings of 1-run ball, with 9 strikeouts and the second-most whiffs of his career with 20), Ferrer got out of a mini-jam in the 8th, and Munoz worked around some wildness for his 24th save. Cal had his fourth homer in 4 ABs, Naylor had an RBI single, and Canzone had a crucial 2-RBI single off of a tough lefty reliever in the 7th inning.

On Wednesday, Bryan Woo shit the bed (4 innings, 6 runs, with five of those runs scored on two homers) and the offense had their usual struggles against a tough lefty starter. To be fair, it felt like we were playing with house money after winning those first two games, so I can’t even be mad at this one.

Here’s where we’re at with 28 games left to play. We’re 2.5 games behind the Astros for the A.L. West. We’re 4 games behind the Guardians for the third wild card (with 3 teams between us). We have an off-day today, before our final difficult road trip of the season: three games at Toronto (one of those teams between us and the Guardians) and three games at Boston (sitting firmly in the second wild card spot, many games ahead of us).

That’s it for the brutal August stretch of baseball. When we get back home next week, starting on Thursday, this is the cake portion of our schedule:

• 4 games vs. the Athletics
• Off Day Monday
• 3 games vs. the Rangers (to hopefully knock them out of our way)
• 3 games at the Athletics
• 3 games at the Angels
• Off Day Thursday
• 3 games at the Rockies
• Off Day Monday
• 2 games vs. the Astros (to hopefully knock them out of our way)
• 4 games vs. the Angels

A reasonable, ideal scenario for this stretch run is as follows: beat the Blue Jays 2 out of 3. That would tie us with them in overall record, while giving us a season-long tiebreaker advantage. Win 1 out of 3 in Boston (while the Rangers and Astros continue to play .500 ball in this stretch of six games, so we don’t lose any ground).

That 3-3 record gets us to 67-73. Win 3 out of 4 against the Athletics, to get to 70-74. Then, you have to find a way to sweep the Rangers; I know you’ve sucked against them all year, but it has to be done. That gets you to 73-74. Then, just go 4-2 on the road against the Angels and A’s: 77-76. Sweep the Rockies: 80-76. Sweep the Astros: 82-76. Win 3 out of 4 against the Angels and hang on for the A.L. West crown: 85-77.

If we were ever going to get hot, this is the time. I know everyone’s talking about how the Mariners don’t even need to get back to .500 to win the A.L. West, but I don’t believe that for a minute. Someone is going to assert themselves in this stretch run. “Good enough” isn’t good enough. The Mariners need to go above and beyond, for one God damned time this season.