What can division champion Mariners clinch next? A bye to ALDS

Sep 24, 2025, 11:05 PM | Updated: Sep 25, 2025, 8:47 am

Editor, Seattle Sports

On Tuesday night, the Seattle Mariners clinched the sixth postseason berth in franchise history.

On Wednesday night, the Mariners locked up their third AL West title – and first since 2001.

Does that leave anything for Thursday night? It sure does.

AL West champs! Mariners clinch first division title since 2001

For the third night in a row, the Mariners will take the field on Thursday against the lowly Colorado Rockies with the opportunity to clinch something important. Next up: a bye past the wild card round and straight to an American League Division Series.

The M’s have a new magic number of one in their sights, which is to clinch at least the No. 2 seed from the AL to the playoffs. This concerns Seattle (89-69) and the Cleveland Guardians (86-72), who lead the AL Central entering play Thursday.

MLB standings

If the Mariners beat the Rockies to sweep their series Thursday, they’ll be at 90 wins with just three to play. That would guarantee them at least the No. 2 seed, because even if Cleveland wins its last four games of the regular season to get to 90 wins, the M’s own the tiebreaker due to the head-to-head record between the two teams this season.

And even if the M’s don’t sweep Colorado, if Cleveland loses its series finale against Detroit set for 3:40 p.m. Thursday – or any of its remaining four games – it won’t be able to top 89 wins.

While the No. 2 seed would be nice, the Mariners can still take a run at the AL’s top seed, too. That’s currently property of the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays, who along with the New York Yankees have the best record in the league at 90-68 (Toronto holds the tiebreaker over New York).

The Mariners, who are a game behind the Blue Jays and Yankees, will need to do better than tie whichever team ends up winning the AL East, though, because Seattle lost the head-to-head series against both of them. The magic number for Blue Jays to eliminate Seattle from contention for the No. 1 seed is three.

Regardless of if the Mariners are the first, second or third seed in the playoffs, one thing is for sure: they’re opening the playoffs with two games at home. That will be the case if they somehow end up being the one division winner that falls to the best-of-three wild card round (not likely), or if they get an automatic bid to a best-of-five ALDS.

After the Mariners wrap up their series with the Rockies, they will host the defending World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers for their three final games of the regular season starting Friday.

The Blue Jays, who have lost six of their last seven games, will try on Thursday to avoid a sweep at home at the hands of the Boston Red Sox (87-71), who have possession of the second of the AL’s three wild cards. Toronto will wrap up the regular season with three games at home against Tampa Bay.

The Yankees have one game left against the Chicago White Sox and three with the Baltimore Orioles.

The Mariners’ series finale against the Rockies is set for 6:40 p.m. Thursday, with radio coverage on the Seattle Sports app and 770 AM beginning at 5:30 with the pregame show.