Mariners know they must solve road woes to pass Astros for AL West title
SEATTLE – No one has been better than the Mariners playing at home this summer.
Few teams, conversely, have struggled as much as the Mariners on the road.
If they’re going to accomplish their goal of winning the AL West, the Mariners will have to reverse their recent road woes, beginning Friday in Cleveland to kick off a nine-game East Coast swing.
“We have a chance now to do what we do here and take it on the road,” manager Dan Wilson said Wednesday after wrapping up another winning homestand with a 4-3 victory over San Diego. “We’ve got some teams that are behind us in the standings, but we need to really continue to play the type of baseball we’ve been doing and have been playing. It boils down to really good at-bats, like we’ve been seeing, and doing it on the mound, like we’ve been doing it.”
The Mariners, on paper, have everything they need to chase down Houston in the AL West.
They bulked up their lineup at the trade deadline.
Their starting rotation is back to full strength.
The vibes around the team are as high as they’ve been after Cal Raleigh’s record-breaking week at home.
And they have one of the easiest remaining schedules of any team in MLB.
There’s no excuses. The Mariners should view the AL West as their division to win.
And, yet, they still have much to prove on the road.
Since July 4, the Mariners have one of the best home records in MLB — 19-6 (.760) in their past 25 games at T-Mobile Park.
In that same span, they’re 5-11 on the road.
It was only a week ago that the Mariners limped home from a torturous 2-7 trip back East — a grueling schedule that featured nine games in nine days through four cities, with a stop in Williamsport, Pa., for the MLB Little League Classic against the New York Mets.
After Thursday’s off-day, they’re now embarking on a nine-game, 10-day trip to Cleveland, Tampa and Atlanta. The Guardians (66-66) entered Thursday with a .500 record; the Rays (64-69) and Braves (61-72) have losing records.
“There’s a certain part of it that, you’ve got to go take it (when) you go to other guys’ home stadiums,” M’s starter Bryan Woo said Wednesday. “It’s where they play their best ball, probably, and where they feel the most comfortable. And they’re not going to give you any games, especially when you go play good teams like we did (on the last trip). You’ve got to go take it from them and you’ve got to have a little bit (of an) extra gear when you’re going on the road, especially when you get into this time of the year. You’re playing good teams that are all vying for playoff spots, and everybody’s going to give you their best.”
Trailing the Astros by seven games on July 10, the Mariners had pulled even atop the AL West on Aug. 12, only to turn around and lose seven of their next eight games, all on the road.
By Thursday afternoon, the Mariners are two games back of the division lead.
The Astros are 18-19 since the All-Star break, and their recent struggles have, on one hand, been a saving grace for the Mariners.
On the other hand, the Mariners haven’t been able to take advantage of the Astros’ downturn, and time’s starting to run out. The Astros also got star slugger Yordan Alvarez back this week after he’d missed nearly four months with a hand injury.
The Mariners (72-62) have 28 games remaining in the regular season. That includes five series on the road and four at home:
Road: Cleveland, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Kansas City and Houston;
Home: St. Louis, Los Angeles Angels (four games), Colorado and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Astros also have five series remaining on the road and four at home:
Road: Texas, Toronto, Atlanta, Athletics and Angels;
Home: Angels, New York Yankees, Texas and Seattle.
Here’s how FanGraphs’ projections calculate the final month to play out in the American League:
AL West:
• Astros, 88.4 wins
• Mariners, 87.9
• Rangers, 81.4
AL wild card:
• Yankees, 89.9 wins
• Red Sox, 88.6
• Mariners, 87.9
• Royals, 82.5
• Rangers, 81.4
• Guardians, 80.1
Per FanGraphs, the Mariners’ remaining opponents have a .491 winning percentage. Only the Yankees have an easier strength of schedule remaining, at .483.
The Mariners and Astros split their first 10 games this season. The AL West crown could very well come down to the final Mariners-Astros series in Houston Sept. 19-21.
The Mariners, by then, hope to have solved their road woes.