Why you should still buy the Mariners as a playoff team

The Seattle Mariners are seven games under .500 entering this week, and they lost not one but two games by 17 runs or more in their past six contests.

And yet they’re still very much in this thing.

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“I do think the Mariners are going to make the playoffs,” Seattle Sports’ Mike Salk said Monday to kick off a segment on Brock and Salk.

It has more to do with the environment in the American League playoff race than what the Mariners are doing themselves, though.

“That’s not to say they’re particularly good. I don’t think they are. In fact, through nearly five months, they’ve shown they’re not particularly good,” Salk continued. “But you look around them, the American League’s an atrocity. I mean, what’s happening on a nightly basis – the Astros fired their GM today. Three of the five teams in the Mariners’ division have fired their GMs or baseball decision makers this year. The division as a whole has a total run differential of (negative-408).”

The Mariners play a part in that dubious distinction with a minus-61 run differential, which has ballooned after a 22-0 loss in Milwaukee last Tuesday and 19-2 defeat to the Chicago Cubs on Sunday. But if you focus on those two losses too much, you might miss something important with just over a month left to go in the regular season.

“This is where I think it’s helpful to separate out the feeling from the facts,” Salk said. “The reality is they’re 3-3 against those two teams. Playing the Brewers and Cubs back-to-back, you’re 3-3. I know it feels like you’re 0-6 because of the (run differential), but the reality is you’re 3-3.”

And even more important?

“A little bit of context shows that they’re only three games back in both the wild card and in the division,” Salk said. “I still think of the teams gunning for it, they’re as talented as any of them. And I think they’re probably going to end up passing a few of these teams with a decent week in September when they play a whole bunch of nobody.”

Salk was alluding to the Mariners’ advantageous upcoming schedule. Though Seattle will host a 75-58 Philadelphia Phillies team that has won nine straight for a three-game series starting Monday night, only six of the Mariners’ remaining 31 games (including the Phillies) will be against teams that currently have a record over .500. That includes seven games apiece against the Athletics and Angels, and three against the Rockies – the three worst teams in MLB by winning percentage entering Monday.

Salk’s co-host Brock Huard is encouraged by what he saw in the Mariners’ back-to-back walkoff wins on Friday and Saturday against the Cubs, even if the team still has lapsed on the field amid its current 5-3 run.

“These guys are still playing hard. Randy Arozarena played as hard a game Saturday as he’s ever played as a Seattle Mariner, in every phase of it,” Huard said. “They’re running out every ball. They’re playing as hard as they can. They’re displaying emotion. They come back with two outs in the ninth inning on a Saturday night to maybe salvage their season. I mean, they’re still playing with effort. But man, the execution on so many levels is lacking.”

Hear the full conversation in the middle segment of the podcast at this link or in the player below. Catch Brock and Salk live from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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• Randy Arozarena achieves rare feat in Mariners’ walkoff win
• Seattle Mariners Injuries: Updates on Bryan Woo, J.P. Crawford

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