Mariners win the pennant

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Seattle Mariner fans have nothing to worry about this week except for how M's announcer Angie Mentink can remove the beer from her blonde locks courtesy of an exuberant Luis Castillo in a Mariner post-game celebration.

The Mariners clinched their first AL Western Division title and now await the winner of a best-of-three series between the Cleveland Guardians and the Detroit Tigers, who have already played six times in the last two weeks. That second-round series begins, Oct. 4 at Safeco Field.

Seattle swept the Colorado Rockies, a team that allowed 479? more runs than they scored this season before playing out the string against the LA Dodgers last week- the M’s first division title since 2001.

Adding to Pacific Northwest baseball fans enjoyment – the Houston Astros- the team Mariner fans dislike the most, somehow played their way out of the playoffs, despite wrapping up the season with the Los Angeles Angels and the Athletics. The Astros were eliminated from the post-season for the first time since 2016.

ESPN’s Power Rankings have the Mariners ranked as the number one team in the American League. The bad news – the Phillies and Dodgers from the National League- are both ranked ahead of the locals, with the Milwaukee Brewers, who did have the best NL record, coming in fourth.

Now for some bragging.

On a Seattle SPORTs Now blog, posted March 28, we predicted the Mariners would win the World Series in 2025. We won’t mention our pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks as the NL representative in the Fall Classic, a team that didn’t even make the playoffs.

Who knew then that two of the D’Backs best players- Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez – would help lead the Mariners to the playoffs. Arizona also sent one of their best pitchers, Merrill Kelly to the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline, which makes you wonder if baseball should have a `death penalty rule’ to prevent sellers at the deadline making the playoffs.

The aforementioned article also mentioned that Sports Illustrated picked the Mariners second in the division behind the `Stros, but said they’d miss the playoffs. It seems like eons ago that people thought the Baltimore Orioles would make the post-season, but it was only last March.

Lindy’s Baseball Preview did pick Seattle to win its division but they picked the Yankees to win the AL pennant. They also predicted that the Mariners’ Logan Gilbert as the AL Cy Young Award winner. However, they did pick the Atlanta Braves as NL champs and they were even worse than the Diamondbacks.

We also finished our March post with the warning that it probably will be the Dodgers and the Yankees in the WS, but it just wasn’t fun to pick them. It could still be that matchup, but the Aaron Judge Marching Band would definitely be a darkhorse at this point.

Our first-round predictions are the Tigers and Red Sox in the AL and Dodgers and Padres in the NL. Although Detroit blew a 15-game divisional lead to Cleveland, the Tigers (wisely) didn’t pitch Tarik Skubal in their final regular-season game on Sunday, probably blowing a chance at winning the division and getting home advantage against the Guardians. Detroit should win the game that Skubal (who played at Seattle University) works.

We’re not as confident in the Red Sox with news that Lucas Giolito (the presumed starter in Game 2) will miss the opening round with shoulder woes. From a trivia standpoint, Giolito, Max Fried of the Yankees and Jack Flaherty of the Tigers, all pitched together at Harvard-Westlake High School, a private school in Los Angeles, where apparently a lot of famous people send their kids (Candace Bergen and Jamie Lee Curtis are also alumni).

Fried and Flaherty will make playoff appearances this week but similar to Detroit, the Red Sox should win Garrett Crochet’s game-one start. Plus, Boston has recently beat up on the Yankees

Apparently, we didn’t put it down in writing, but we told some friends that the Mariners and Red Sox would be in the AL Championship- mainly because they’re the two teams we watch the most. But that could happen too.

If you’re a Mariner fan have fun watching a week of stress-free baseball.

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