2 reasons the Mariners will make the playoffs and 2 reasons they won't

Reason #2 Mariners make playoffs: The Astros series

This one is dependent on the rest of the Yankees series and the upcoming Rangers series. If the Mariners can take care of business, and it's a big if, then you pair that with the Astros struggling against the Padres and Angels, the series could hold an immense amount of weight.

This series would be the penultimate one of the season, with the Mariners wrapping up in Seattle against the Athletics and the Astros finishing up in Cleveland against the Guardians. We are already looking at the teams mentioned as ones we are reluctantly rooting for, but the Mariners have to take care of business first.

Yankees. Rangers. If the Mariners can get through that stretch and end up within 3 games of the Astros, all of a sudden they control their season. The Mariners are currently up on Houston in the season series at 6-4, so they would hold the tiebreaker if it comes to teams with the same record. While every game is important, those three in Houston loom incredibly large. Even more interesting? The final game of the series would see the Astros through Yusei Kikuchi, who is 5-0 with a 3.14 ERA since joining the Astros, and the team hasn't lost a single start by him.