Seattle Mariners Lose

The Seattle Mariners played the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday, just as they did on Tuesday, and Monday. They lost, just as they did on Tuesday, and Monday. Their playoff odds are now 0.1%. Doesn’t matter if you’re using FanGraphs, ESPN, or whoever else… their playoff odds are 0.1%. Which isn’t zero, but which is also 0.1%.

Kansas City and Oakland both lost, the Mariners held the Jays to only one run behind eight innings of Taijuan Walker brilliance, and yet there’s another L in the bad column. It wasn’t an eight-run blowout, but they still lost. The pitching was amazing. Walker was legitimately great. But they lost, for the fifth day in a row.

Credit to Mark Buehrle, who is an amazing pitcher in the midst of a fantastic season. He shut the M’s down, and that’s definitely something that the Mariners would have had to overcome in order to win. They didn’t overcome that, of course. Because they lost.

If you’re expecting Seattle to lose every game the rest of the way you probably aren’t insane. It could happen. Not easily, but it’s really, really easy to imagine that happening right now. But they could also win every game! The A’s could lose from here on out, and then who knows! But that’s highly unlikely. That happens roughly… 0.1% of the time.

No eulogies yet. Not tonight. But maybe tomorrow. This could still be the greatest and latest comeback in Mariners history. They could be a wild card team yet. But mathematical elimination isn’t far away, and emotional elimination probably happened in the fifth inning yesterday. I guess we can always keep reminding ourselves that it was a fun ride.

But the ride’s not over yet! Tom Wilhelmsen starts vs. Daniel Norris tomorrow at 1:07pm. Wilhelmsen is a middle reliever and Norris you’ve never heard of. Which means the Mariners have a shot!