Another day, another win for the red-hot Seattle Mariners. Actually, this time they won twice in the same day.
The Mariners (47-42) held off the Washington Nationals in the first game of Wednesday's doubleheader at Nationals Park (SEA 6, WAS 4), extending their winning streak to nine games. They then took down the Nats in a pitchers duel in the nightcap (SEA 2, WAS 0) to run their winning streak to 10 games, tied for the second-longest streak in franchise history.
Here are the longest winning streaks in Mariners history:
- 15 games: May 23 to June 8, 2001
- 10 games: April 8-17, 2002
- 10 games: Sept. 12-21, 1996
- 10 games: July 2-13, 2022 (current)
- 9 games: May 27 to June 5, 2003
- 9 games: April 19-28, 2001
Juan Soto put a scare into the Mariners with a ninth-inning three-run homer Wednesday afternoon and forced them to use closer Paul Sewald, which was less than ideal in Game 1 of a doubleheader. Otherwise, Seattle received six strong innings from Chris Flexen and homers from Adam Frazier, Cal Raleigh, Eugenio Suárez, and Jesse Winker.
Game 2 was scoreless heading to the top of the sixth inning when Winker hit his second homer of the day. Later in the inning, a Frazier sac fly would provide them with insurance. It was a bullpen game for the Mariners and everyone was great. Erik Swanson, Tommy Milone, Matt Brash, Diego Castillo and Paul Sewald combined to allow just four hits in the shutout.
Following their most recent loss on July 1, the Mariners were five games behind the third and final American League wild-card spot with five teams ahead of them in the standings. But the 10-game win streak has moved Seattle back into a tie with the Blue Jays for the last wild-card spot. Toronto is fading hard enough that they fired manager Charlie Montoyo earlier on Wednesday.
It should be noted the Mariners played the first nine games of the winning streak with a 25-man roster. They had to play a man short because of the suspensions stemming from their brawl with the Angels on June 27. Seattle went 10-1 in their 11 games while shorthanded: 6-0 without Winker, 3-1 without JP Crawford, and 1-0 without Julio Rodríguez. The suspensions have all been served and the Mariners did have a full 26-man roster for the second game of Wednesday's doubleheader.
The Mariners have not been to the postseason since Ichiro's rookie season in 2001. It is baseball's longest postseason drought by a decade. According to FanGraphs, the winning streak has improved Seattle's postseason odds from 11.0 percent to 48.1 percent.