M’s find selves in rare territory after sixth straight win

The playoff push has begun for the Mariners.

Playoffs?

Isn’t this supposed to be a developmental year?

Well, 2020 has proved to be anything but normal or predictable in sports or life. And following that trend of unexpected or unthinkable developments, the Mariners have a postseason pulse that’s something stronger than faint in a season where they planned to play young players to get experience and a large portion of fans wanted them to lose as many games as possible for the chance to take Vanderbilt’s stud pitcher Kumal Rocker with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft.

Following four days of dominance over the cratering Texas Rangers, including Monday’s 8-4 drubbing at T-Mobile Park, which completed a four-game sweep and extended their season-high win streak to six games, the Mariners have forced themselves into a final sprint for a spot in the expanded playoffs of this odd 2020 season.

Thanks to a two-week stretch where they’ve played their best baseball of this truncated season, winning 11 of 14 games, the Mariners, now 19-22, left Seattle for a five-game road trip just 21/2 games behind the second-place Houston Astros, who were playing the A’s later Monday evening.

While in normal seasons, challenging for second in their division with a record hovering near .500 wouldn’t mean much, the expanded playoff plan of 16 teams gives Seattle hope. Eight teams from the American League will qualify for the postseason – the top two teams from each division will get spots along with two wild-card teams with the best remaining records.

Realistically having those three games postponed with the A’s to start the homestand allowed the Mariners to push to the position.

Of Seattle’s 19 games remaining on the season, there are 12 games against teams with the winning records, including six with Oakland (a doubleheader next Monday at T-Mobile and four games in Oakland to close out the season), and the next homestand that features a three-game series with the Padres and a three-game series with the Astros.

After Monday, Houston will also have 19 games remaining with only six games remaining against teams with winning records — four with the A’s and two with the Dodgers — all this week. The Astros play the Rangers seven more times.

Mariners ace Marco Gonzales is a big reason for this run of success both in performance and leadership of the young pitching staff.

Gonzales pitched seven innings Monday, allowing two runs on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts to improve to 5-2. In eight starts this season, Gonzales has pitched 502/3 innings, allowing 17 earned runs for a 3.02 ERA with four walks and 46 strikeouts.

Gonzales seemed to have no-hit stuff and command in the first few innings. He cruised through the first three innings in order, needing 11 pitches in each.

The Mariners staked him to a quick three-run lead against Rangers starter Kolby Allard. For the second straight day, Kyle Seager clubbed a homer in his first at-bat of the game, sending a two-run blast into the cardboard cutouts in deep right-center in the first inning.

In the third inning, Dylan Moore offered another example of his power surge this season, crushing a leadoff homer deep into the area known as ‘The Pen.’

Gonzales struck out Leody Taveras to start the fourth inning for his 10th straight batter retired. But he gave up back-to-back singles to Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Shin-Soo Choo. After retiring Nick Solak with a fly ball, Gonzales let Joey Gallo hammer one into the gap in right-center to score two runs that cut Seattle’s lead to 3-2.

The Mariners turned that one-run lead into a six-run lead in the very next inning.