The News Tribune · Aug 31, 2017
September’s arrival means reinforcements for the Mariners. Is it too late?
Long-awaited reinforcements begin arriving Friday for the Mariners prior to their series opener against Oakland at Safeco Field.
Are they too late?
A five-game skid torpedoed a once-promising trip through four cities and left the Mariners limping into September at 66-68 and trailing Minnesota by four games in the race for the American League’s final wild-card berth.
The Mariners must also now leapfrog four other clubs just to get to the Twins.
It’s a tall order.
The Fangraphs.com computer projection, prior to Thursday’s games, showed the Mariners with only a 5.3-percent chance of reaching postseason. Baseball Prospectus (3.5 percent) and FiveThirtyEight.com (4.0) were even less optimistic.