The Mariners are ruining the good vibes they created at the trade deadline

For a brief, glorious stretch, the Seattle Mariners were listed among the elite in all of Major League Baseball. Riding high off their trade deadline moves, they looked like a team on a mission. Ten wins in their first eleven games of August gave fans reason to believe the front office’s gamble had paid off. Momentum was building, the vibes were immaculate.

Then came reality in the form of a haymaker.

The Mariners’ road trip has been anything but smooth sailing. It started with a gut-punch series loss to the Baltimore Orioles, a team that’s been duct-taping a rotation together all season. Somehow, every Orioles starter decided to dig into the archives and channel their inner Nolan Ryan, mowing down Seattle’s bats like it was 1973.

Mariners’ August magic vanishes as road trip turns into a comedy of errors

If that wasn’t demoralizing enough, the Mariners followed it up with a performance that looked straight out of Little League. Fittingly, it came in Williamsport, home of the Little League World Series.

Only, instead of the heartwarming scrappiness those kids usually bring, Seattle delivered the kind of sloppy, uninspired showing you’d expect from a 12-year-old squad more worried about postgame pizza. The New York Mets, a team that’s had recent struggles finding the win column, handed them a humbling loss to secure a 2-1 series win.

And now comes the storm. The Mariners head into a three-game set with the red-hot Philadelphia Phillies, who have been bludgeoning opponents while sitting comfortably atop the NL East. Philly’s 71-53 record and 37-21 dominance at home doesn’t exactly scream “bounce-back opportunity.” The Mariners technically have a winning record at Citizens Bank Park (7-4 since 2003), but that’s more trivia than reassurance. The last time Seattle visited Philly in 2023, they dropped two of three to a Phillies team that nearly reached the World Series.

The question is simple: Which Mariners are going to show up? The ones who looked like juggernauts right after the deadline, or the ones who let a post-fire sale Orioles squad and the free-falling Mets hand them L’s? Fatigue, weather delays, and a brutal travel schedule may explain some of the stumbles, but excuses won’t punch their ticket to October.

The first game offers a crack of daylight. Logan Gilbert will square off against struggling Phillies lefty Ranger Suárez, who has been lit up for 11 runs and 19 hits in his last two starts. The Phillies dropped both of those games by a combined score of 11-2. If the Mariners jump on him early, they might just rediscover the offensive spark that fueled their early-August surge.

If not, the quicksand they’ve stepped in over the past week could swallow the last of those good vibes.

Game Times and Probable Pitchers for Mariners vs. Phillies, August 18-20

• Monday, August 18 at 3:45 p.m. PT: Logan Gilbert vs. Ranger Suárez
• Tuesday, August 19 at 3:45 p.m. PT: Bryce Miller vs. Cristopher Sánchez
• Wednesday, August 20 at 10:05 a.m. PT: Luis Castillo vs. Jesús Luzardo