Where do The Seattle Mariners Stand in The Playoff Picture?
A little over a month ago, the Seattle Mariners had a 10 game lead in the American League West. Their division rivals were either injured or getting ready to relocate and the Mariners' postseason aspirations were looking positive.
Now the Mariners trail the Houston Astros by one game and have a tattered offense with the release of Ty France and the injuries to JP Crawford and Julio Rodriguez. The best chance Seattle has to make it to the postseason is to win the division. Looking at the rest of the American League, the Mariners will have a tough path to the playoffs without a division crown.
According to the latest wild card standings on ESPN.com, Seattle has a few teams in front of them. They're 3.5 games out of the final wild card spot and 2.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox, who are the fourth in the wild card standings.
The top three wild card spots as of Thursday are occupied by the New York Yankess, the Minnesota Twins and the Kansas City Royals.
The Mariners have other teams breathing down their necks. The Tampa Bay Rays are one game behind Seattle in the wild card standings and division rivals Texas Rangers are 1.5 games behind the Mariners.
Seattle will have an opportunity to but the Red Sox further behind it in the standings when the two play a three-game series starting on July 29. Boston is also on a rough stretch of games recently. It got swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers and lost a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies. One of those losses was 20-7.
The next few weeks will be super critical for Seattle. It'll have a six-game road stretch against the Chicago White Sox and the Red Sox and then willl have a nine-game homestead right after.
There's a chance that the Mariners will have Rodriguez back when they return home, but that's still up in the air. They need to get as many wins as they can before then.
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