Astros attempt to honor Alex Bregman backfires, keeping Mariners in playoffs race

The race for the remaining AL Wild Card spots is coming down to the wire. With the Orioles all but guaranteed a spot, the Mariners are one of four teams still chasing down one of the two tickets to the postseason.

But things have looked dismal for Seattle. Prior to today's game, they had just a 3% chance (per FanGraphs) to make it to October, but an interesting ceremonial decision by the Astros may have given them a lifeline.

With their season ending on a road trip to Cleveland, the Mariners series would conclude Houston's last homestand of 2024. Coincidentally, with Alex Bregman's impending free agency, it also marked the star third baseman's potential final game at Minute Maid Park.

To commemorate this, manager Joe Espada made a defensive substitution in the fourth inning to give fans a chance to celebrate his storied career with the club. Very nice.

Mariners stay alive in playoff race after Astros' attempt to honor Alex Bregman backfires

While this was a cool way to honor an integral part of Houston's core over the past eight years, things quickly turned south for the recently crowned champions of the AL West.

Bregman's defensive replacement was Shay Whitcomb, the 14th-ranked prospect in the Astros' system. He was a highly-touted player when called up and was expected to bring power to the lineup, but his fielding was labeled as "erratic at third base" by MLB scouts. It didn't take long for him to prove that point perfectly.

Whitcomb's first error came against Dylan Moore in the top of the sixth inning, missing a soft grounder with his glove before booting the baseball all the way to first base. Had he made this out, Yusei Kikuchi's two strikeouts would have nullified the error and kept it scoreless for Seattle. Instead, Justin Turner came through through with a two-run single to the M's on top 2-1.

Whitcomb made two more errors in the seventh inning. First, he allowed Julio Rodriguez to reach after failing to cleanly field and throw a hard grounder. Just two batters later, he underthrew another hard chopper to third base that allowed Randy Arozarena to advance. The latter should have been the third out of the inning, but instead allowed Victor Robles to score from second.

His fourth and final error came in the top of the ninth inning after he made yet another errant throw to first, allowing Moore to reach safely again. Moore would immediately score after a subsequent double by Victor Robles, bringing the score to 6-1.

What should've been a strong way for the Astros to finish the season while honoring a franchise star ended up as a 8-1 victory for Seattle. It was looking like a difficult series for the Mariners, but they ended up taking two out of three before facing the Athletics to close out the year. Now just one win behind the Royals and Tigers, the M's continue to hold on to their slim but very real chance of playing October baseball.