The Seattle Mariners have won another game. They haven’t lost since July 1. Since then, the Mariners have rattled off 11 consecutive wins, marking the second-longest streak in franchise history after a 15-gamer in the 2001 season, when they won an MLB-record 116 games.
For much of the game Thursday, it looked like the streak would be broken. After a doubleheader on Wednesday, the Mariners had a pretty tired bullpen entering the game, and the Rangers jumped on starter Marco Gonzales for three runs in the first and two in the second.
The deficit for the Mariners was 5-1 heading to the seventh inning. They’d rally in both the seventh and eighth innings. Eugenio Suárez had a two-RBI single in the seventh and Ty France came through with a clutch two-RBI single to give them the 6-5 lead in the top of the eighth.
This is just the fourth time in franchise history the Mariners have won at least 10 games in a row. There were 10-game winning streaks both in 1996 and 2002. As previously noted, this 11-gamer is the Mariners’ second-longest after their 15-game winning streak from May 23 to June 8 in 2001.
The Mariners’ hot streak extends beyond this winning streak, too. Going back to a loss on June 19, the Mariners were just 29-39 on the season. They’ve gone an MLB-best 19-3 since then.
Further, we already mentioned the 2001 season, so we might as well note, again, that the Mariners have the longest playoff drought in major North American professional men’s sports. It was that 2001 season when they last made the postseason.
With the Red Sox and Blue Jays both losing on Thursday night, the Mariners are now sitting alone in the second AL wild card spot, one game up on those two teams — who are tied for the third wild card — and just 1 1/2 games behind the Rays for the top wild card.
The Mariners will look to make it a dozen straight Friday, and they’ll have a good chance of doing so with ace Robbie Ray on the hill. They’ve won his last five starts and he has a 0.91 ERA in his last six.
