Mariners have no choice but to put costly loss behind them
Sep 28, 2016, 6:12 AM | Updated: 9:34 am
(AP)
HOUSTON – For the fifth time this season, the Mariners had a chance to go 11 games over .500 Tuesday night and they failed to cross the threshold once again. Perhaps when all is said and done, this will prove to be as good a description as any for the team this year. “The 2016 Mariners: 10 games over .500,” and perhaps one game shy of the postseason.
We shall see. On Wednesday, they have a baseball game to play and five more remaining. They’re two games back of the second wild-card spot and they still have a heartbeat, but first thing is first.
“Tomorrow is a big game, we know that,” manager Scott Servais said following the Mariners’ 8-4 loss to the Astros Tuesday night. “We have got to show up. We have got to let this one go tonight. We have got to come out with some piss and vinegar and get after it.”
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That was the message he shared with the players following a game that is best put behind them, no matter how costly it was to their postseason hopes. Two errors were committed, Felix Hernandez’s struggles against the Astros continued and the Mariners’ offense showed only marginal improvement from its recent struggles. An opportunity to pull within one game of a wild-card spot was lost, but that cannot be the focus now, according to Servais.
“Guys are disappointed, obviously,” he said. “The thing is we came in here and we knew we had to win the series and get help. We are kind of in the same boat. We have a chance to win the series tomorrow and we still need some help. We are not done yet. I keep saying that. Our team certainly believes it.”
James Paxton takes the hill against Doug Fister and an Astros team that has a glimmer of hope at a return to the postseason as well, now just a half game behind the Mariners. Paxton is coming off a strong outing against Houston Sept. 17 and Fister has struggled against the Mariners this year, going 2-2 with a 6.86 ERA.
As for the help Servais has talked about, those games will come later in the day. Baltimore is at Toronto with Chris Tillman facing Francisco Liriano, and Detroit is at Cleveland with Zach McAllister and Michael Fulmer taking the hill. According to FanGraphs, the Mariners enter play Wednesday with an 8.5 percent chance of winning a wild-card spot.