Two years ago, on the second to last day of the regular season, they silently watched their playoff hopes end on the televisions in their own clubhouse of T-Mobile Park.
There were curse words muttered under the breath and terse words from a young catcher, frustrated with the failure, demanding more from the front office and ownership.
A year ago, they were eliminated from postseason contention on an off-day at home leading into the final three-game series of the season. It was outcome that seemed inevitable. They had been mathematically alive, but realistically they were ostensibly done days earlier due to their failures weeks and months before that day.
Hoping other teams fail to offset your failures is no way to make the postseason.
Not this year, not this team.
“You want to control your own destiny,” Cal Raleigh, that aforementioned young catcher, said just a few days earlier. “You don’t want to rely on someone else.”
On Tuesday night, they relied on themselves to secure a spot in the American League playoffs, rallying from an unexpected two-run deficit going into the bottom of the eighth in a way so typical of their second-half surge – a group effort and a big two-out hit.
Josh Naylor, the trade deadline acquisition who has grown into a fan favorite in just a few months with his mixture of grump and thump, gave an anxious crowd of 35,925 on their feet in anticipation of something special, the defining moment in a 4-3 win over the Colorado Rockies.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth and the Mariners trailing, 3-1, Naylor torched a 98-mph fastball from Victor Vodnik, sending a linedrive into the left-center gap to clear the bases and give the Mariners a one-run lead.
When Andres Muñoz struck out Kyle Karros to end the bottom of the ninth for a 1-2-3 inning and his 37th save, a stadium-shaking roar of triumph and jubilation filled the night air. It was a salute to a team that won it their way.
But there will be more celebrations ahead, the Mariners can clinch the American League West Division title and one of two top seeds in the AL in the coming days.
Woo to miss next start
Bryan Woo’s regular season, it appears, is over.
The Mariners are, however, painting an encouraging outlook on Woo’s availability for the postseason, presuming the club clinches a berth into October in the coming days.
Woo will not take his next turn in the rotation, scheduled for Thursday’s series finale against the Colorado Rockies.
“Mostly because his routine has been pretty broken up by what’s happened since he walked off the mound the other night,” Mariners GM Justin Hollander said Tuesday afternoon. “We’re still taking it day by day. Zero plans to place him on the [injured list] right now.”
Woo has not thrown since exiting Friday’s game in Houston with what was later described as minor inflammation of his right pectoral muscle.
The Mariners’ 25-year-old ace had allowed only one hit over five scoreless innings against the Astros in the first game of the Seattle’s three-game sweep that put them in control of the AL West.
Late Sunday, Woo told The Times he was “definitely optimistic” about his general prognosis, adding that he’s “truly taking it day by day” with his recovery.
“He feels like it’s already feeling much better,” Hollander said. “He’s in a really good mental place right now. He was very disappointed on Friday postgame, just with the uncertainty. He really wanted to go dominate for the entirety of the game, and he was on pace to do that.
“And the way he has felt the last couple days has been very encouraging to him and us.”
The team is hopeful Woo can “get a baseball in his hand again” and throw either Wednesday or Thursday, Hollander said.