The Seattle Mariners are thinking magic numbers. The Colorado Rockies are just glad they avoided a tragic number.
The teams open a three-game interleague series Tuesday night at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.
The Mariners (87-69) have won four straight games and 14 of their past 15 to surge into first place in the American League West. With six games remaining, their magic numbers are two to clinch a playoff spot, three to win the division title and four to earn the league’s No. 2 seed and claim a first-round bye.
The Mariners entered their weekend series in Houston tied with the Astros atop the division, but they swept all three games to take a commanding lead and gain the tiebreaker because they won the season series.
“Honestly, you couldn’t ask for a better three-game set,” said Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who leads MLB with 58 homers. “Obviously, there’s a lot on the line, and I give credit to the guys here in this clubhouse. They never flinched.”
J.P. Crawford hit a grand slam and Raleigh added a two-run shot — resetting his single-season record for a switch-hitter — during a seven-run second inning Sunday night that led to a 7-3 victory at Houston. Logan Gilbert allowed one run on three hits over six innings.
“It feels great to be in the spot that we’re in,” Crawford said. “We can’t look too much into the future. We’ve got to worry about our business on Tuesday.”
The biggest concern for the Mariners entering the final week of the regular season is the health of right-hander Bryan Woo, who left Friday’s start after five scoreless innings because of “minor inflammation” in his right pectoral muscle.
Woo’s regular turn in the rotation comes Thursday against the Rockies, but he could be pushed back.
“It’s really just kind of a day-to-day thing,” said Mariners manager Dan Wilson. “We’ll continue to assess it each day. … And that’s really what we know at this point.”
The Rockies (43-113) took two of three games from the visiting Los Angeles Angels over the weekend to surpass last year’s Chicago White Sox (41-121) and avoid the most single-season losses in the modern era.
Veteran Kyle Freeland allowed one run on five hits over six innings Sunday in a 3-1 victory.
“We want to finish as strong as we can. But with that, it’ll be somewhat nice to exhale and be like, ‘That season is over. What can I learn from it?’ Then move forward,” Freeland said. “The gravity of the season has weighed on it, obviously not the situation we want to be in.”
Tuesday’s series opener is scheduled to feature a pair of right-handers in Rockies rookie McCade Brown (0-4, 9.17 ERA) and the Mariners’ Bryce Miller (4-5, 5.58), both of whom will be facing the opposing team for the first time.
Brown will be making his sixth major league start. He didn’t get a decision in an 8-4 defeat last Wednesday against visiting Miami in which he gave up three runs on four hits and four walks over four innings.
Miller allowed three runs on eight hits over five innings the same day in Kansas City, but he didn’t get a decision in a game the Mariners eventually lost 7-4 when the Royals rallied with four runs in the bottom of the eighth. That serves as Seattle’s only defeat since Sept. 6.
–Field Level Media
