Mariners Latest Run Could Take All The Fun Out of American League Postseason Race

After dismantling the Orioles and Royals in consecutive series, the Mariners have thrown a wrench into the American League postseason race. I say that because through about 100 games, the five spots in the American League Playoffs look all but set. There’s still some stuff that needs to shake out, of course, but unless someone gets really hot or goes ice cold, the current placeholders should stick.

Five Likely AL Playoff Teams — (in no particular order)

  1. New York
  2. Boston
  3. Cleveland
  4. Houston
  5. Seattle

The AL East and AL West have a monopoly over the American League postseason race. Each division has two teams fighting for the top spot but whoever takes second place will nestle into an AL Wild Card spot. Right now, the two AL Wild Card spots are held by the Yankees and Mariners. As for the AL Central, the Cleveland Indians have a commanding 9.5-game division lead with no other team even above .5o0. They will not have a dog in the AL Wild Card race, that’s for sure.

As of July 3rd, Oakland is the only team that’s less than 10 games back of holding down a spot — they’re eight games behind the Mariners.

This all happened because of Seattle’s recent winning streak. Just last week, the American League postseason race seemed anything but certain. Now, however, the M’s are firmly in the driver’s seat and have enough arms, bats, and support to see this thing through. Let’s just hope they never wear those cut-off jerseys again. Those, my friends, were AWFUL.

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The Rays have proven they can win big games recently but they don’t have the balance or star-power to sustain through the end of the season. Oakland always seems to be in this will-they, won’t-they spot before falling flat. And the Angels have so many injuries it’s sad. While crazy stuff always happens in baseball, I really believe that these five teams will ride it out over the next three months and hang on to their postseason spots.

On the bright side, there is still a ton of spots undecided in the National League postseason race.

Complete MLB standings.

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