The Mariners’ top AL West competition is changing

When the Seattle Mariners arrived in Sacramento on May 27, the focus was solely on the Athletics, who held a 2.5-game lead in the AL West over the M’s at the time.

Then the Mariners swept aside the A’s in dominant fashion, overtaking them for first place in the division in the process and kick-starting a season-best winning streak of eight games.

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Just over a week since the M’s completed that important sweep in Sacramento, they’re 33-30 and own a two-game lead in the AL West. But it’s not just the Athletics that Seattle needs to be concerned with now. And in fact, the A’s might not be the team the M’s need to most concerned with at this point.

Because that now appears to be the Texas Rangers.

While the A’s lost seven games in a recent 10-game stretch, the Rangers have been heating up in what has been an otherwise chilly year in the AL West.

Texas recently won five straight to move into second place in the division, though a loss Wednesday to St. Louis snapped their win streak and allowed the A’s to move back ahead of the Rangers by a half-game.

The Rangers, like the Mariners, caught fire on the heels of a rough stretch.

Texas lost four straight from May 22-25, the last of those losses being a combined no-hitter thrown by three Houston Astros pitchers. The Rangers beat Houston the next day, however, to start a stretch of six wins in eight games.

It’s a bit similar to the Mariners starting their eight-game win streak after two straight rough losses at Kansas City that dropped them to four games under .500 on May 24.

As for what’s going right with the Rangers, they’ve started scoring runs. With Ezequiel Duran, Josh Jung and Joc Pederson leading the way, they’ve averaged 6.2 runs per game during their five-game win streak. And that’s plenty for their pitching staff, which ranks fifth in MLB this season with both a 3.70 ERA and .227 opponent batting average, and sixth with a 1.21 WHIP.

Also like Seattle, Texas has been doing this while one of its best hitters has been out of action. For the Rangers, that is five-time All-Star shortstop Corey Seager, who is currently on a minor league rehab assignment working his way back from a back issue. The Mariners have been playing without a pair of 2025 All-Stars: catcher Cal Raleigh (oblique) and Brendan Donovan (groin). Raleigh is set to begin a rehab assignment this weekend.

On the year, the Rangers have a 4-2 advantage in head-to-head matchups with the Mariners, having swept a three-game series in Texas before the M’s took two of three in Seattle. The division rivals won’t see each other again until a four-game set in Texas from July 24-27, and they’ll meet up once more in Seattle for three games in early September.

The Mariners and Rangers are both off Thursday, with Seattle opening a three-city, 10-game road trip Friday afternoon in Detroit against a Tigers team that is only 25-38 but just swept three from the American League-leading Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas returning home to open a three-game set against the AL Central-leading Cleveland Guardians (36-27) on Friday night.

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