Thanks to an assist from the New York Mets, the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros ended Wednesday in a tie atop the American League West.
Beginning Friday, the Mets will be the ones trying to spoil the Mariners’ division title hopes instead of aiding them.
The Mariners will look to remain red-hot Friday night, when they visit the Mets in the opener of a three-game interleague series. Seattle and Houston are on top of their division with the Texas Rangers a game back after they lost to the Mets on Wednesday.
The Mariners haven’t officially announced a starter, although right-hander Logan Gilbert (12-5, 3.66 ERA) is expected to pitch on five days’ rest. Right-hander Kodai Senga (10-7, 3.17) is slated to start for the Mets.
Both teams were off Thursday after earning wins at home on Wednesday.
J.P. Crawford laced the go-ahead two-run single in the seventh inning for the Mariners, who capped a sizzling August by edging the Oakland Athletics 5-4. A few hours later, the Mets salvaged the finale of a three-game series with the Rangers when DJ Stewart capped a four-RBI performance by getting hit with the bases loaded in the 10th inning to give New York a 6-5 victory.
The Mariners improved to 76-57 and while even with the 77-58 Astros, Houston stood mere percentage points behind.
The Mariners began the month in fourth place in the division, five games behind the Rangers and 3 1/2 games out of the third wild card spot. Seattle opened the month by winning eight of its first 12 yet lost 2 1/2 games in the standings to Texas, which went 11-2 in the same span.
Unfazed, Seattle finished off a 21-6 month. The Mariners have gone 13-2 since Aug. 14 –the best mark in baseball in that stretch. The Mariners’ last 21 wins are the most in a calendar month in the team’s 48-season history, breaking the previous high of 20 set in June 1997 and matched three times during the club’s 116-win 2001 season.
“Twenty-one wins in a month and there was a really special team here that won 116 games one year and they didn’t even do that,” Mariners manager Scott Servais said.
The Mets won 101 games last season, the second-most in franchise history, but any hopes of building off their resurgent 2022 disappeared during a June in which New York went 7-19.
The Mets enter September in last place in the NL East and hoping to avoid finishing in the cellar for the first time since 2003. But New York was persistent Wednesday to avoid getting swept.
Stewart’s second homer, a two-run shot, tied the score in the eighth before Jeff Brigham wriggled out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the 10th inning by getting Travis Jankowski to hit into an unusual 3-2-4 double play.
“We know what the games mean for them,” Mets manager Buck Showalter said after Wednesday’s game. “There’s a certain professional integrity you have to have in the way you approach these games, and I hope people that are chasing or competing against the Rangers appreciate the way our guys got after it tonight. I know I would if I was in another clubhouse.”
Gilbert earned the win for the Mariners on Saturday, when he allowed one run on two hits over seven innings as the Mariners beat the Kansas City Royals 15-2. He has never opposed the Mets.
Senga took the defeat last Friday after surrendering two runs over 6 2/3 innings as the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Angels 3-1. He has never faced the Mariners.
–Field Level Media
