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Seattle Mariners

Mariners clinch top-two seed in AL playoffs with Guardians’ loss

Cal Raleigh of the Seattle Mariners celebrates his solo home run, his 60th of the season, during the eighth inning against the Colorado Rockies at T-Mobile Park on Sept. 24, 2025, in Seattle.  (Tribune News Service)
Ryan Divish Seattle Times

SEATTLE – The Mariners clinched at least the No. 2 seed in the American League playoffs before the first pitch was thrown at T-Mobile Park on Thursday night.

Less than an hour before they took the field to play the Colorado Rockies, the Mariners watched in the clubhouse as the Tigers held on for a 4-2 victory over the Guardians, salvaging one win in the three-game series and avoiding a sweep at Progressive Field.

With a top-two seed clinched, the Mariners will have a bye through the wild-card round of the playoffs, meaning they will have five days off before opening the American League Division Series on Oct. 4 in Seattle.

How did it work for Seattle to get into this spot?

With both Detroit and Cleveland now holding 86-73 records in the back-and-forth battle for the American League Central with three games left in their season, it meant that neither team could finish with a better record than the Mariners, who came into the day with an 89-69 record.

Even if Seattle had lost its final four games and either Cleveland or Detroit won their final three games, they would finish with an identical record to the Mariners. But because Seattle holds the tiebreaker over both by virtue of winning the respective season series, it meant a top 2 seed was finalized.

As the No. 2 seed, the Mariners will play the winner of the wild-card series between the AL Central winner and the third wild-card. Those two spots will got some combination of the Tigers, Guardians and Astros.

Cleveland hosts the Texas Rangers for the weekend series. The Tigers travel to Boston for a difficult three-game series. The Red Sox currently hold the second wild card spot. After avoiding being swept in a three-game series with the A’s on Thursday afternoon, the Astros (85-74) sit one game back of both Cleveland and Detroit, but doesn’t have the tiebreaker over either team. The Astros will open a three-game series vs. the Angels on Friday.

The Toronto Blue Jays entered Thursday officially one game ahead of the Mariners for the top seed in the American League and improved to 91-68. They Yankees also picked up a win over the White Sox to move into a tie atop the AL East standings. The Blue Jays own the tiebreaker over the Yankees for the division title. Both New York and Toronto own the tiebreaker over Seattle.