The Mariners left their four-game set with the Athletics carrying a little bit of life, but not nearly enough to disguise how much ground they’ve given away.
Sunday’s 2-0 win at least gave them a clean finish. Bryan Woo turned in the best outing of his career, throwing 8.0 scoreless innings and giving up only one hit and two walks while striking out nine over 102 pitches.
It was the kind of performance that can steady a club for a day. It can’t erase the damage from the rest of the series.
And the damage was real. Seattle dropped three of four to an Athletics team that, on paper, should have been the kind of opponent the Mariners could use to keep pressure on the standings. Instead, the series underscored just how uneven and frustrating this season has been.
The timing made it sting even more. Seattle entered the homestand 5.0 games behind the Astros in the AL West and 4.5 back in the race for the final American League wild card spot.
There was still a path, and a fairly friendly one, too. The Mariners’ final 22 games included 17 against the Athletics, Angels and Rockies, the three teams with the worst records in baseball, plus two more home games against Houston.
The runway was there.
But this series looked a lot more like the Mariners of 2026 than the version fans had hoped for when the season began. This was a team many expected to represent the American League in the World Series and maybe, just maybe, win its first championship. Instead, the gap keeps widening.
Seattle still has a chance to make the playoffs, but that chance is slipping fast. With 18 games left, the Mariners are now 6.0 games behind both the AL West lead and the final wild card spot.
The four games against Oakland were a snapshot of everything that has gone wrong.
Thursday’s opener was a mess, with the Mariners striking out a season-high 18 times and leaving 14 runners on base. Kade Anderson had his toughest Major League outing so far, battling both command and velocity. Friday brought big strikeout numbers from Logan Gilbert, but it also produced an ugly line in the record book: four home runs allowed in one inning, a Mariners franchise mark and just one shy of the Major League record.
Saturday was even flatter. Seattle managed only two hits and no runs across 7.0 innings in a 6-2 loss to Jeffrey Springs, who entered as the AL’s worst starting pitcher.
Lazaro Montes, coming off his two-hit, one-home run debut against the Red Sox, couldn’t build on it and went 1-for-10 in the series, though that one hit did drive in a run. Add in avoidable mental mistakes, a lack of hustle and shaky bullpen support, and the whole week felt like a familiar letdown.
There was also more bad luck on the injury front, with Matt Bash lost for the rest of the season.
Where Seattle goes from here is anybody’s guess. The franchise has built a reputation in recent years for playing better after the break, but this season has flipped that script. A club that has won 85 or more games in four of the past five years would be fortunate to finish .500 in 2026.
Even now, though, the door isn’t fully shut. The schedule is still the clearest reason not to completely write the Mariners off. After Sunday’s win, Woo tried to keep the message simple:
“Just stay with us man. I mean everything you feel, we feel tenfold.
I know it’s not the perfect season, but just keep showing up every day, give it everything you’ve got, fight to the last and give it everything man. That’s all you can do.”
It sounded like a speech meant as much for the clubhouse as for anyone else. Seattle reportedly held a closed-door meeting after Saturday’s loss, and now the only question that matters is whether it changes anything.
In Other News...
Mariners Fans Have Every Right To Be Furious This Week
The calendar clash landed in a way Seattle sports fans can feel immediately. The Mariners open their series against the Rangers on Tuesday night, and then the Seahawks are set to play a Wednesday game that cuts straight across the baseball schedule, turning what should have been an ordinary midweek stretch into an awkward scramble for anyone trying to keep both teams in view.
For Mariners fans, the frustration is less about one game than about the principle behind it. The baseball season was already moving toward a finish line that does not appear to include a playoff push, which only makes the timing sting more, because the crowd should be able to focus on the home team without another league forcing its way into the conversation. Instead, Seattle supporters are left wondering why the NFLs schedule took precedence over an established Mariners date in the same market. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Collapse Has Made One Lineup Fix Impossible To Ignore
The Mariners slide has turned every offensive misfire into a bigger problem, and the numbers only underline how far things have gone sideways. Seattle is 10 games below .500, close to being mathematically eliminated from postseason contention, and the lack of run production has been at the center of it all. A lineup built to do more has instead lagged behind the rest of the league, with key contributors regressing and the club sitting last in MLB in runs scored.
So while the present has become increasingly hard to salvage, the offseason picture is getting clearer by the day. Improving the offense is going to be priority one, and that means the Mariners may need to look beyond internal fixes and into the market for help. Whether that comes through a free-agent splash such as Randy Arozarena or via the trade route, this winter already looks like it will be defined by how aggressively Seattle addresses a lineup issue that can no longer be ignored. [Read more 🡒]
Mariners Get A Brendan Donovan Update At The Worst Time
Brendan Donovan is still working his way back from the concussion he suffered Aug. 22, and the timing could hardly be worse for a Mariners club that has spent plenty of energy trying to stay in the race. Donovan remains hopeful he can return before the end of the season, which at least gives St. Louis a target to circle as the calendar thins and every healthy bat matters more.
For Seattle, the update lands as another reminder that contenders are often waiting on someone else to get healthy while the competition gets a boost of its own. Aaron Judge is back from the injured list and set to play in upcoming Yankees home games, adding more weight to a crowded stretch, while Donovans situation remains one to monitor as the postseason chase tightens. [Read more 🡒]