Mariners invite all aboard World Series bandwagon with dominant Astros sweep

It was only three days ago that the Seattle Mariners arrived in Houston with plenty of momentum, but nothing especially solid to show for it. They led the Astros neither in the AL West race nor in the season series between the two clubs.

That feels like forever ago right now.

There's the standard happy flight, and then there's the sort of happy flight that the Mariners are in for after what they did to the Astros. They didn't just beat them three times in as many tries. They straight-up demoralized them, in the process all but clinching their first American League West title since 2001.

On Friday, Bryan Woo and three relievers teamed up for a three-hit shutout. On Saturday, Cal Raleigh broke Ken Griffey Jr.'s Mariners single-season home run record and Victor Robles sealed the deal with a superhuman catch. And then, in front of a national audience via ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, a J.P. Crawford grand slam and Raleigh's 58th homer of the year turned the finale into a 7-3 laugher.

Just like that, the Mariners are 3.0 games up on the Astros with six left to play. As the Mariners also hold the tiebreaker between the two clubs, they can conceivably clinch the AL West as soon as Wednesday.

Now is the time to climb aboard the Mariners' World Series bandwagon

Though Sunday only marked the Mariners' 87th win of the season, it also marked their 14th victory in their last 15 games and their 30th in 47 games since Jerry Dipoto refurbished the roster at the trade deadline. They are one of only four teams to win 30 or more games since July 31.

The oddsmakers are feeling it. Baseball Reference has the Mariners with the fourth-highest odds to win the World Series, while FanGraphs has them atop the charts with a 17.8 percent chance to win it all.

Mariners fans have been conditioned by nearly a half-century's worth of bad memories to take all this with a grain of salt. Even if it isn't likely that the Mariners will fumble the position they've gained in the AL West, the postseason is another matter entirely. Expectations have a way of crumbling in October, with the Mariners' 116-win team from 2001 representing perhaps the ultimate cautionary tale.

That said, the law of averages holds that the Mariners are bound to run into a championship eventually. Indeed, they're frankly overdue after not even making it into the World Series in any of their first 48 seasons.

Some teams also just have the feel of a World Series contender, and the 2025 Mariners fit the bill more and more every day. Their offense is led by six All-Stars, with the whole unit ranking in the top five of MLB for home runs and stolen bases and in the top 10 for walks. The pitching staff, meanwhile, has finally been living up to its lofty billing with a second-ranked 3.35 ERA in September.

Further, Sunday's win was the Mariners' 47th of the year against a team with a .500 or better record. Throughout all of Major League Baseball, only the Toronto Blue Jays have as many.

The sheer significance of the three most recent wins in that tally coming against the Astros is unavoidable. As they have claimed seven of the last eight division titles, they have been the gatekeepers of the AL West for close to a decade. But now, they aren't merely reeling from the Mariners' blow — if the current picture holds, they stand to miss the playoffs altogether.

In this context, there is no such thing as a sure thing. The Mariners still have a long way to go and much to accomplish before they so much as find themselves on the doorstep to the Fall Classic. Their fans know better than to take anything for granted.

Yet after what transpired this weekend, hardcore Mariners fans and curious newcomers alike may have the same question: How, exactly, is this team supposed to be stopped?