Mariners lose grip on first place in AL West to Astros

The Seattle Mariners’ 10-game win streak is over, as is their hold on first place in the American League West.

A 7-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals paired with a 5-2 Houston Astros victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday dropped the M’s one-half game back of Houston for the top spot in the division.

The Boston Red Sox, who beat the Athletics 5-4 in 10 innings, also pulled even with the Mariners, forcing a tie for the second and third wild card berths. The Cleveland Guardians are 2 1/2 game backs, Texas is 4 1/2 behind and the Royals, who still have an outside shot of reaching the postseason, are seven games back.

The Mariners (83-69 record) do have a chance pull back even with the Astros with a win over Kansas City while Houston is off on Thursday. The M’s and Astros then start a critical three-game series in Houston on Friday. The winner of the series will claim the tiebreaker between the team, as their season series is tied 5-5.

While the Mariners have a chance to get back into first place Thursday, the loss Wednesday was a pretty big swing. It made what could have been a very helpful Detroit Tigers loss to the Cleveland not as friendly. A Mariners win Wednesday would have brought them only one game back of Detroit for the AL’s No. 2 seed in the playoffs, which comes with a bye in the wild card round of the playoffs and homefield advantage in the ALDS. Instead, Cleveland pulled closer. The M’s hold the tiebreaker over the Guardians via a 4-2 record in the season series.

Seattle still has the best chance of winning the AL West at 53.7%, per FanGraphs. Its chances of reaching the playoffs are 97.3%, which are the fourth-best odds in the AL.

The Mariners wrap up their three-game series with Kansas City at 11:10 a.m. on Thursday. Right-hander Luis Castillo (9-8 record, 3.76 ERA) is set to face Royals right-hander Stephen Kolek (5-5, 3.71 ERA). Radio coverage begins with the pregame show at 10 a.m. on Seattle Sports 710 AM and the Seattle Sports app.

More on the Seattle Mariners

• Mariners Minors Notebook: Lazaro Montes wins 2nd straight MVP
• Cal Raleigh can’t believe his name is now beside Mantle and Griffey
• ESPN’s Passan: What it could cost Seattle Mariners to keep Josh Naylor
• Passan: ‘The Mariners go on heaters when Jorge Polanco goes on heaters’
• Seattle Mariners’ magic number to make playoffs is a single digit

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