The road to the playoffs goes through Seattle
The good news keeps coming for the Seattle Mariners. After clinching their first AL West title in over two decades last night, prior to tonight’s game, the Mariners got some good news out of Cleveland, where the Detroit Tigers pulled out a win in their series finale against the Guardians. That means without needing a win tonight the Mariners move into the second seed, securing a first-round bye for the playoffs and sending them straight to the American League Divisional Series to face either the third or sixth-seeded teams who will play in the Wild Card round: currently Detroit and Cleveland, the two teams that played today. The Astros trail the Tigers by just half a game for a final Wild Card spot.
The Toronto Blue Jays hold the first seed in the American League, setting them up to face the fourth or fifth seed (currently the Red Sox and Yankees) in the ALDS. It would be tricky, but not impossible, for the Mariners to overcome the Jays for the top overall spot, as they’re two games behind (plus a tiebreaker), so they’d basically have to win out while the Jays would have to go the other direction (as would the Yankees, who also have a better record than the Mariners and hold the tiebreaker over them). There’s an argument as well that the Mariners might prefer the two-seed rather than having to travel back east to potentially face an AL East foe. The real benefit of having the one or two seed is having home-field advantage, which the Mariners have already earned.
The Mariners will host Game 1 of the ALDS on Saturday, October 4 at T-Mobile Park. Tickets, which went on sale earlier today, sold out in minutes.
ALDS Game Schedule:
- Oct. 4 – Game 1 at T-Mobile Park
- Oct. 5 – Game 2 at T-Mobile Park
- Oct. 7 – Game 3 – Away
- Oct. 8 – Game 4 – Away (if necessary)
- Oct. 10 – Game 5 at T-Mobile Park (if necessary)
One person who is especially happy about this news: Mariners centerfielder Julio Rodríguez, who joyfully declared to the press after Tuesday’s playoffs-clinching game that the team wasn’t done yet; they wanted to go after that home-field advantage.
“We want to play at home! I don’t want to leave my neighborhood to play!” he shouted, lifting a champagne bottle in celebration.
Today, Julio got his wish: the road to the American League playoffs goes through Seattle.
Category: General Sports
