The Mariners are putting on a master class in how to lose a playoff spot

The Seattle Mariners went into Friday knowing that no matter what happened, they would wake up on Saturday morning with a playoff spot in hand. But when their heads finally do hit the pillow, another thought may rob them of whatever rest they hope to get:

After tomorrow morning, there are no guarantees.

The Mariners lost again on Friday, you see. And even if you didn't see, you might have felt it like a disturbance in The Force. Such is the dismal nature of their life on the road right now, and the Atlanta Braves became the latest to twist the knife with a 4-1 win over the Mariners at Truist Park.

They are now 1-6 on their current nine-game road trip, which is coming on the heels of a 2-7 record in their last nine-game foray away from T-Mobile Park. As much as the Mariners ostensibly are one, these simply are not the trappings of a serious contender.

The Mariners have themselves to blame for putting their playoff spot in jeopardy

Unlike some of the other road losses the Mariners have suffered of late, at least this one wasn't all bad.

They got a standout performance from Logan Gilbert, who fanned seven batters in six innings of one-run ball. It was a bit of road redemption (road-emption?) for the 28-year-old, as he had entered the affair with an avert-thine-eyes ERA of 5.80 in nine starts away from home.

Chris Sale was simply better, striking out nine and allowing one earned run over 6.2 innings. Frustrating stuff, but anyone who expects any matchup with a reigning Cy Young Award winner to go well should follow another sport — word is a whole 'nother option is entering the chat this weekend.

And yet, of course the Mariners failed to get their bats going. And of course it resulted in the bullpen having to walk a tightrope that snapped underneath them.

Though Seattle's pitching struggles in road games have been well-documented, the offense hasn't been faring much better. It has scored 3.6 runs per game on the club's last two road trips, meaning the Mariners are suddenly hitting on the road like the Pittsburgh Pirates have all season.

For what it's worth, the sixsome of Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Randy Arozarena, Eugenio Suárez, Josh Naylor, and Jorge Polanco sounds just as awesome today as when the gang first got together on July 31. But the pieces just aren't fitting together, and it's past time for Dan Wilson to recognize it and try a different starting nine.

Meanwhile, the bullpen had a 5.45 ERA since August 13 even before Gabe Speier allowed four hits and three runs without getting an out in the eighth inning on Friday. Everyone Wilson calls on just looks gassed, and a steady flow of what can only be described as "weird crap" hasn't helped.

Last Friday, it was perfectly timed and perfectly placed soft contact by the Cleveland Guardians. Tonight, it was a funky ground ball by Matt Olson and a fly ball to right by Ozzie Albies that Dominic Canzone just plain overran.

Bad luck is something the Mariners can't do much about, of course. It's a fact of life for every baseball team, and has been ever since the Cincinnati Red Stockings crawled out of the primordial ooze back in 1869.

What the Mariners are supposed to be doing is insulating themselves from bad luck by playing good baseball. Their 73-68 record confirms they have done so for much of the season, but the 6-15 skid they're on now has taken whatever reputation they once had and made it go, "Poof."

As of this writing, they only have a 1.0-game lead over the Kansas City Royals for the AL's third wild card spot, with the Texas Rangers threatening to cut their deficit to just 0.5 games.

The wolves are at the door, as it were, and they don't even need to worry about breaking it down at this point. They can just wait for the Mariners to open it and let them in.