Mariners' easiest series of the 2025 season comes at the best possible time

The Mariners are back home in Seattle and staring down multiple clinch opportunities in the last week of the 2025 regular season. With six games left, the objective boils down to winning as many as possible.

So, yeah, if ever there was a good time for the Colorado Rockies to come to town, this is it.

Really the only nice thing to say about the 2025 Rockies is that at least they're not going to finish with the worst record in MLB history. They avoided that fate when they won their 42nd game last Friday, ensuring that they would lose no more than 120 games. Members of the 121-loss Chicago White Sox from last year might not have been popping bottles, but sighs of relief were in order.

The Mariners, meanwhile, are eyeing the following clinch scenarios:

• Tuesday: Can clinch a playoff berth with a win over Rockies and a New York Yankees win.
• Wednesday: Can clinch the AL West by reducing their Magic Number over the Houston Astros from 3 to 0, with either one win and two Astros losses or two wins and one Astros loss.
• Thursday: Can clinch the AL's No. 2 seed with a sweep of the Rockies and at least one loss by Detroit Tigers.

If you're a Mariners fan, that weird feeling coming over you right now is nothing to be alarmed about. It's what they call "confidence," as these outcomes feel less probable and more, well, inevitable.

The Mariners take on the Rockies with multiple playoff scenarios on the line

You have to go back to 2001 to find the last and really only time in Mariners history that them finishing as one of the best teams in MLB was a mere formality. Every other season they've ever had has been some sort of grind, including the other four playoff trips in 1995, 1997, 2000, and 2022.

This year has felt like that for the most part, to be sure, but the last few weeks are a waltz that has turned into something resembling a victory lap. The Mariners have won 14 out of 15, with their sweep of Houston over the weekend all but ending the AL West race.

The question now is not whether the Mariners will make the playoffs, but how far they'll go. And to this end, FanGraphs has them as a heavy favorite (i.e., 34.3 percent) to finally make it to the World Series for the first time in franchise history.

Accordingly, it would be the shock of all shocks if the Rockies caught the Mariners flat-footed and threw their playoff plans into disarray over the next three days. The notion is somewhere in the back of all our minds, just lingering there like a coiled snake.

And yet, here's a comforting stat: The Rockies are 18-57 on the road, the worst mark in MLB for 2025.

And here's another for good measure: The Rockies are 18-79 against teams with winning records, the worst performance of any team since 1935.

This matchup slightly favors the Mariners, and it really feels like they've hit the jackpot when you factor in what is happening elsewhere. The Yankees are playing the White Sox, who are once again the AL's worst team. The Astros are playing the Athletics, who have been one of the AL's best teams (32-26) in the second half. And the Tigers are playing the Cleveland Guardians, who have cut their AL Central lead from 10.0 games to 1.0 game just since September 6.

If you're thinking it would be awesome to be a fly on the wall in the Mariners' clubhouse, you might want to think twice. Those walls are likely to spend much of this week covered in plastic and getting sprayed by champagne.

Game Times and Probable Pitchers for Rockies vs. Mariners, September 23-25

• Monday, September 23 at 6:40 p.m. PT: McCade Brown vs. Bryce Miller
• Tuesday, September 24 at 6:40 p.m. PT: Tanner Gordon vs. Luis Castillo
• Wednesday, September 25 at 6:40 p.m. PT: Bradley Blalock vs. Bryan Woo