Mariners’ Potential Travel Plans Cover Plenty Of Familiar Territory

The Seattle Mariners’ path to the postseason might take them along a road well-traveled - and should they get there it might not be as simple as simply finishing the regular-season schedule.

A year ago, Seattle finished the regular season on a Sunday in Texas, flew to the Kingdome for a one-game playoff with California on Monday, won that and jetted to New York to start the American League playoffs.

Exhausting? It was, and it was nothing compared to what could happen this season. There are a handful of scenarios so complex the Mariners cannot yet book passage to all the places they might have to go.

Consider this straightforward possibility: Seattle finishes the season in Oakland, a half-game behind Baltimore in the wild-card race. On Monday, Seattle would play its rained-out game against the Indians in Cleveland.

Should the Mariners win that game - forcing a tie with Baltimore - the team would fly to Maryland for a one-game playoff.

And then? Should the Mariners win that game, they would then fly to Seattle and host Cleveland on Wednesday in the official playoffs.

Other scenarios? The Mariners could finish the season a half-game behind - or ahead - of the Rangers. They’d then have to play in Cleveland on Monday and, if the outcome of that game left them tied with Texas, play the Rangers in the ‘dome on Tuesday …

It gets worse. What if the Mariners finish a half-game ahead or behind Texas and Baltimore and New York finish the regular season tied? It’s conceivable that after that one-game makeup in Cleveland, the Mariners, Rangers, Orioles and Yankees would all have identical records.

Which would mean Baltimore and New York would play for the A.L. East title, Seattle and Texas for the A.L. West title. And the losers of both those games could meet a day later to determine the wild-card winner.

There are other possibilities, too. The Mariners could wind up tied with Baltimore or New York or Chicago or Boston for the wild-card berth. Or tied with all of them.

So go ahead. Book your flight now.

Mariners win flip

Seattle won a coin flip with Texas on Friday to determine the host of a playoff game in the event of a tie for the A.L. West title.

The game would be Oct. 1 at a time to be determined by ESPN. The first round of the A.L. playoffs is scheduled to start the same day, but one series would have to be delayed in the event of a divisional playoff.

Awards handed out

The Seattle chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America has handed out 1996 M’s awards: Rich Amaral was the ‘unsung hero,’ Bob Wells pitcher of the year and Alex Rodriguez player of the year.

Coming up

Oakland and Seattle in the Kingdome at 7:05 p.m.