Mariners pull back in the race after back to back wins

It seemed over. The games seemed almost meaningless after James Paxton’s injury, and five straight losses didn’t help anything. The Mariners were teetering on the brink of yet another season of irrelevancy. They weren’t quite ready to take the step off the edge just yet though.

After getting pummeled in game one of the series, mercilessly pummeled, the season seemed all but over. Yet, the Mariners stepped up, and behind Andrew Albers and four perfect innings from the bullpen they took game two, 3-1. That pulled them to 60-61 and 1.5 games beck despite the five consecutive losses.

Somehow, after all that, this Seattle team still sat right in the thick of the wild card race.

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Then, the M’s thought, “might as well go for two and get back to .500 as well.” The skipper almost “Servaised” them yet again, and almost cost them the win. But, this Mariners offense, one of the best in the league, pulled this team back in front.

Then when Diaz almost coughed it up in the ninth by walking the bases full with no outs, the Mariners outfield, also one of the best in the league, bailed him out. This time it was Leonys Martin coming up with a phenomenal catch to rob Manny Machado of an extra base hit and at least two RBIs.

Diaz would then hit Trey Mancini, who Servais felt swung and should’ve been called out instead of awarded first. That would bring up Ex-Mariner Mark Trumbo with the bases loaded. He would hit him too, making it a 7-6 game, and doing nothing to help the elevated heart rates of Mariners fans.

Chris Davis was the next Oriole up, and Servais elected to go to Zepczynski instead of letting the wilder-than-usual Diaz face another batter.

Zep struck him out looking on three pitches.

Next: Mariners have had it bad in 2017, but just how bad?

The Mariners won, and stayed a game and a half back of Los Angeles. It was an ugly game, but this team is going to have a lot of ugly games down the stretch with this pitching staff. Seattle fans just have to accept it and hope for the best. For now though, this team is still hanging around.