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The AL West race has become the most thrilling in baseball, with three teams still technically in the hunt for the division title, let alone a spot in the playoffs.
The Seattle Mariners, fresh off a walk-off double from JP Crawford Thursday, made it two-in-a-row against the Texas Rangers. The win kept them alive in the messy American League Playoff hunt, where only the AL East, Central and one Wild Card spot have been officially decided.
Still, despite a two-game stretch that has seen them win dramatically one night and definitively the next, the Mariners’ place in the postseason remains in doubt.
“Of the many convoluted ways that the as-of-yet undecided AL West and AL wild-card picture could play out, the vast majority leave the Mariners on the outside looking in. Technically, they’re playing for a postseason spot. Statistically, they’re probably playing their final series of the season,” Hannah Keyser of Yahoo Sports wrote.
FanGraphs gives Crawford, Julio Rodriguez, and Co. a 31.9 percent chance of making the playoffs, down from the 33 percent it slotted them prior to their 8-0 dismantling of the Rangers on Friday.
That is because the Houston Astros held off the Arizona Diamondbacks, themselves seeking to clinch a playoff appearance for the first time since 2017, on a heroic performance by pitcher José Urquidy on short notice.
Urquidy threw six scoreless innings of two-hit baseball, proof of the depth that exists on the defending World Series champions’ roster, as Chandler Rome of The Athletic wrote.
“Emergency starters are not supposed to have extensive postseason experience. That Urquidy does demonstrates the advantage Houston possesses over almost all of the American League’s contenders. The team is so stacked with October standouts that some can’t see the field.”
The Astros are now one win away from guaranteeing a return to the postseason and a chance at defending both their World Series title and the closest thing to a dynasty that this era of Major League Baseball has seen.
Not nearly as hot as those two teams are the Rangers.
Or so it may seem on the surface.
“It’s complicated. But the Rangers remain in control of their destiny. Even if it doesn’t feel that way after the series’ first two games,” Art Garcia of Sports Illustrated’s FanNation wrote.
That is the perfect way to sum up Texas’ late season. Despite very real concerns about the team’s ability to field quality pitching in the playoffs, and two high-profile defeats against the Mariners, the team has won seven of its last 10 and remains in the driver’s seat for the AL West title.
To secure it, they must win their final two. To clinch a spot in the playoffs regardless, they have to take just one from the Mariners.
They are hardly the red-hot team that started the summer off as one of the best in the Majors, and there is reason to believe that the deficiencies facing the team in their rotation and bullpen will ultimately lead to an early exit but, as is the case with all three of the teams in question, all one needs to do is make it to the dance.
From there, anything is possible.
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