Hunt for October: Seattle Mariners Need a Miracle

Alright, so miracle is perhaps too strong. We don’t need to get into reckless hyperbole over baseball. Still, the Seattle Mariners are going to need a lot of help if they are going to make the 2014 MLB playoffs.

5-10 in their last 15 games. This is not the statistic of a winner. The Mariners have gone cold at exactly the wrong time.

In the last three games, the Mariners have been outscored 32-8. Yikes. Anyone else wondering where the pitching has gone all of a sudden? Suddenly the biggest strength of this team has become an obvious liability. Good thing Felix Hernandez is on the mound tonight.

Maybe he can pitch a complete game. While he is at it, maybe he can hit for whatever sub-.200 hitter that Lloyd McClendon was thinking of sending out there.

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To make the playoffs, a couple of things must happen. The Mariners need to win, obviously. In fact, winning all six games would help. Given the way the team has played lately, that seems unlikely. However, this is baseball, a sport where a team can get hot in an instant.

It only takes one game to start a streak.

In addition to winning games, the Mariners need teams to falter in the final week. There are still three teams that could collapse and allow the Mariners to pass them, but the numbers paint a particular story.

The Oakland A’s and Detroit Tigers can be caught, but not for long. One or two more wins from them coupled with Mariners losses will eliminate these teams from being overtaken.

Truthfully, it is all about the Kansas City Royals. The Mariners need to catch the Royals and right now they are two games back of KC with six to go.

It doesn’t take a Ph.D. in statistics to figure out that the odds are not in Seattle’s favor unless Katniss Everdeen is suddenly batting cleanup. Sorry, had to go there.

There is still hope. However, that hope is fading fast. The Mariners need a miracle, or at least something close to that.