The Seattle Mariners enter Sunday’s series finale against the Cleveland Guardians at 42-42 and 0.5 games up in the American League West.
Though the Mariners are currently in playoff position, it’s frankly hard to see them as a playoff team.
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They’ve been snakebitten by injuries, but moreso, they’ve been hampered by massive inconsistency, mainly from key roster components.
That said: Sunday’s game could have a real importance on the final outcome of their season.
Cleveland enters play at 43-40 and in second place in the American League Central, just one game behind the Chicago White Sox.
Right now, the Mariners and Guardians are 3-3 against each other this season, meaning that Sunday’s game will determine the tiebreaker between the two rosters. Should both teams win the division, the tiebreaker will be important for seeding purposes. Should both teams lose the division, the tiebreaker could be very important for wild card purposes.
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Already seven times this season, the Mariners have won the first game of a series and failed to ultimately win the series. They will try to avoid that from playing out again on Sunday. The Mariners won on Friday night before losing on Saturday, 4-3.
That marked the 13th consecutive game for the Mariners without scoring more than three runs.
I talked more about the initial point on the most recent ‘Refuse to Lose Territory’ podcast, which came out after Thursday’s loss against the Pirates.
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Seattle Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena (56) hits a three-run home run in the eighth inning against the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field. David Richard-Imagn Images
“As I’ve told you all along, the schedule is only going to get tougher. They have yet to see the Dodgers. They’ve yet to see the Brewers. They still have to go to New York to play the Yankees. They still have to play the Phillies. They still have six with Tampa.
This is the time where they are supposed to be padding things, and they aren’t. These, collectively, are unacceptable results for teams that are good and teams that want to be good.
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This was also another example—another one of my great frustrations—of the Mariners winning the first game of a series and ultimately not being able to finish it off. How many times have they lost a series where they won the first game and couldn’t win one of the next two to ultimately lose the series? The answer is too many.
They did it against the Angels: won on Friday, lost Saturday and Sunday. They did it against the Yankees: won on Monday, lost Tuesday and Wednesday. They took the first two against Baltimore, couldn’t win one of the last two. They did it in Washington: won on Friday, couldn’t win one of the next two.
So it’s happened too many times. You throw this one in there: win on Tuesday, fail to win on Wednesday and Thursday. There are more in there also.
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How different would the record look if, in the handful of series that the Mariners end up losing two of three after winning the first one, they had just won one of the next two? They’d have five or six more wins, and we’d be in a position where we’re talking about them at 45-37 instead of 41-41. Man, that would look a whole lot different.
Those are my greatest frustrations. We could talk about individual players, and you can talk to me about roster construction, and you can talk to me about lineup management and bullpen management. You can talk to me about all of that, and it will all be fair.
But at the end of the day, not beating who you’re supposed to beat and not being able to win series when you’ve won the first two games—or when you won the first game, excuse me—those are my biggest frustrations right now with the 2026 Seattle Mariners.”
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The Mariners and Guardians will finish out the series on Sunday at 10:40 a.m. PT. Emerson Hancock will pitch against Gavin Williams.
The most recent edition of ‘Refuse to Lose Territory’ is out, with thoughts on my visit to Pittsburgh, Bryan Woo’s viral press conference and more. You can listen here, or you can watch below.
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