The Mariners' playoff pursuit is spiraling — and even they know it

It wasn't long ago that the Seattle Mariners felt unstoppable. They were arguably the winner of the July 31 trade deadline on paper, and they sure played the part in real life by winning 10 out of their first 11 games with their new-look roster.

Since then, though...well, is "bloodbath" too strong?

The Mariners have lost 13 out of their last 19 games, including 11 out of 13 on the road. There was at least a humorous element to their latest L on Tuesday, but nobody was laughing by the time the Mariners were wasting opportunities while giving the Tampa Bay Rays too many of their own late in the game.

Mercifully, the AL West lead is still 3.0 games away after the Houston Astros had problems of their own in a tension-filled defeat to the New York Yankees. But with the Texas Rangers (1.5 games) and Kansas City Royals (2.5 games) so close behind the Mariners for the third spot, the wild card race remains too tight for comfort.

Fading playoff hopes means it's déjà vu all over again for the Mariners

Seen this movie before? Broken record? Whatever your preferred cliché, all of this feels just way too familiar. And as much as one wants to hope the third time will be the charm, the Mariners finishing just a game short of the playoffs in both 2023 and 2024 is hard to put out of mind.

And apparently, it's not just fans who are feeling haunted by the ghosts of the last two seasons.

“You don’t want to be in that situation again for three years in a row,” Cal Raleigh said after Tuesday's 6-5 loss, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. “That’s just the truth. There’s no sugarcoating it. That would be a terrible, terrible way to go out. But it’s our job to do everything we can to push through and make it a reality of being in the playoffs.”

This was the general theme of what Mariners players had to say last night. Bryan Woo spoke of everyone being "sick and tired of the last couple of years of what has happened in August and September," while J.P. Crawford openly lamented how little fight the team has in it right now:

Transparency is always appreciated, and nobody would be buying it if everyone came out last night and insisted everything was fine. Only manager Dan Wilson tried to do that, and his stance that the team is "heading in the right direction" rings about as hollow as a chocolate Easter bunny.

True, the Mariners have mostly been losing close games amid their 6-13 tailspin. And yes, bad luck has played an outsized role in the carnage.

And yet, to say that nothing is working would not be overstating it. Amid this span, the offense is averaging a modest 4.5 runs, while the pitching has simply dug too many deep holes in posting a 5.61 ERA. The whole team seems immune to coming up clutch, with even Raleigh stranding five runners on base in the late innings after slamming his 51st homer earlier in Tuesday's game.

Since peaking at 95.2 percent on August 12, the Mariners' odds of making the playoffs have descended to 79.7 percent at FanGraphs. With odds of 16.4 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively, the implication is that the Rangers and Royals don't actually have any hope of catching them.

But after the last two years, Mariners fans know better than to trust the odds. And as refreshing as it is to hear their blunt honesty, it's not exactly encouraging that even the players are talking about this season as if it's in danger of slipping away.