For the first time since 2001, the Seattle Mariners are a playoff team. They scored his 2-1 walk-off victory on Friday night over the Oakland A’s to ticket him to the MLB playoffs in 2022. Catcher Cal Rowley hit a home run in the ninth inning to break the 1–1 tie. Let’s see:
It was the longest playoff drought in North American men’s professional sports on record. The NBA’s Sacramento Kings have not made the playoffs since 2006, so they will take over the mantle. They have a half-game lead in the final NL playoff spot. The dubious distinction of longest playoff drought shifts to the Angels (2014) if they make it to the playoffs.
Much of the focus has been and will continue to be on the drought, but let’s also give credit to the teams that beat the drought.
Centerfield prodigy Julio Rodriguez was named an All-Star in his 21-year-old season, and not only was he named AL Rookie of the Year, but he was also voted MVP. 280 batting average with 144 OPS+, 27 home runs, 25 stolen bases and 5.7 WARs in his 129 games. Those are already superstar numbers. He’s injured right now, but he’s very likely to return before the playoffs.
Joining him in an inconsistent offense capable of hitting home runs are Eugenio Suárez (31 homers), Cal Rowley (26) and Carlos Santana (15 homers in just 73 games). Ty France got off to a great start to the season. We know what players like Jesse Winker and Mitch Haniger can do when things go well. Their offense looks helpless, but if they all make it to the playoffs, they can concede a point with their pitching ability.
Speaking of which, Luis Castillo and Robbie Ray give the Mariners two established front-line starts in the playoff rotation in front of Logan Gilbert and George Kirby, who threw very well in the clinchers on Friday. In the bullpen, Seattle has a strong core of relievers in the closing stages for most of the season, getting great work from the likes of Paul Sewald, Penn Murphy, Andres Muñoz and Eric Swanson.
The drought has been going on for a relatively long time, so it will obviously make headlines. In 2001 his team scored a record 116 wins for the Mariners. There was Edgar Martinez, Mike Cameron, and John Orludo. Jamie Moyer was in rotation, but he was still under 40. Brett his Boone had a monster his season with 37 home runs and 141 RBIs. The Mariners also had an AL MVP, and it was Ichiro Suzuki.Ichiro is rookie that year.
Since then, there have been some terrible seasons (101 losses in 2008 and 2010) and bullied jobs (2018 stands out). Last year he had 90 wins and was still far behind.
At the team level, the most outstanding season so far has been a 14-game winning streak en route to the All-Star break. It included a series sweep of the Blue Jays and Padres, showing that this team can do big in the playoffs if everything goes wrong at the right time.
For now, just making it to the playoffs is a huge accomplishment and worth celebrating. After all, they couldn’t celebrate it in his 20+ years.
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