Welcome to The Opener, where every weekday morning you’ll get a fresh, topical column to start your day from one of SI.com’s MLB writers.
The Mariners’s 4–2 win over the Rays on Tuesday night was downright boring by their standards: there was no late-inning comeback or tightrope-walking by the bullpen, and the two-run margin of victory qualified as a blowout compared to how the 2021 season has progressed thus far. A few more ho-hum wins like that, though, and Seattle could find itself in a position it hasn’t occupied in a great many years: smack dab in the middle of the playoff picture.