Passan: How Mariners are still alive in uphill battle for playoff berth

Time is running out for the Seattle Mariners, but there’s hope as they make a push for the playoffs during the final days of the regular season.

Playoff Race: Where Mariners stand after Game 1 win over Astros

After beating the Houston Astros on Monday night, the Mariners kept their ambitions alive for an American League West crown and inched closer in the wild card picture.

Seattle entered Tuesday two games behind the Astros, who can clinch the division with a win over the M’s in either of the final two contests of their three-game series, and 1 1/2 games behind the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers for the second and third wild card berths. The Minnesota Twins are also one-half game in front of Seattle in the wild card race.

It’s an uphill battle for Seattle with just five games remaining in the season. However, nobody in front of them is running away.

Why have Mariners been AL’s best offense this month? Passan weighs in

ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan explained why the Mariners are still very much alive when he joined Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk on Tuesday morning.

“Remember, after it looked like this team was absolutely dead, I was like, ‘Yeah, baseball teams are not very good this year,'” Passan said. “That’s what it comes down to. I’m putting together this story that always runs right after the season ends, and it’s ‘Why your team can win the World Series.’ And what I keep finding is, amid this positivity, I need to also suggest why your team cannot win the World Series, and in quite a few cases there are more reasons that they can not win the World Series than they can.”

Passan delved into what’s going on with the teams in the wild card picture.

The Royals (82-74) appeared to be well on their way to a playoff berth just a month ago. They tied Cleveland for first place in the AL Central on Aug. 27 and were 17 games over .500, but proceeded to lose seven straight contests. Kansas City is on another seven-game losing streak right now and is 7-16 in its past 23 games.

The Royals finish their season with three games at Washington and three at Atlanta. Kansas City is just 37-38 on the road.

MLB Standings: Division | Wild card

The Tigers (82-74) are on the other side of the spectrum from Kansas City. They spent most of the season out of the playoff picture but have been hot since August. Detroit has won six of its past seven games and is 13-6 in September.

The Tigers finish their season with three-game home series against Tampa Bay and three against Chicago White Sox. They’re in a good spot, but the fact that a team that sold about as much as any at the trade deadline is in the position speaks to how open the race is.

“Detroit spent the first three-quarters of the season a patently mediocre team – not underachieving, necessarily, just not very good,” Passan said. “(They) traded Jack Flaherty, who was the best player to go at the deadline, and Mark Canha and Andrew Chafin and Carson Kelly. Four guys out the door, and here they are.”

The Twins (81-75) have been tumbling for over a month now after reaching a season-best 17 games above .500 on Aug. 17. They are 11-22 in their past 33 games and have lost 11 of their past 16.

Minnesota finishes the season with three-game home series against Miami and Baltimore.

“I don’t even know what to say about the Twins,” Passan said. “The Twins, to me, are the most disappointing team of all, because they have a real offense. And for them to just collapse to this extent – I understand they don’t have (starting pitcher) Joe Ryan right now – there’s no excuse at all.”

The one major factor working against Seattle is that it doesn’t hold the tiebreaker against any of the teams it’s jockeying for position with in the wild card race.

If the Mariners can find a way to sweep the Astros, they’ll be two games back in the AL West with three to play. Seattle gets Oakland at home for three games to finish the season, while Houston plays three games at AL Central champion Cleveland. And the Mariners do hold the tiebreaker against the Astros.

“So here the Mariners find themselves,” Passan said. “If they win out, they don’t control their own destiny, but certainly (with) the way the other teams are playing, they have a pretty reasonable shot.”

Listen to Tuesday’s conversation with ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan in the podcast near the top of this post or at this link. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6-10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

More on the Seattle Mariners

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• The Final Push: What the Mariners are up against in last week
• Astros star hurt before huge series against M’s in Houston
• Five Seattle Mariners prospects who raised their stock with big seasons

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