The Seattle Mariners missed an opportunity to gain some ground in the playoff standings with a 6-5 loss against the Texas Rangers on Sunday.
The Mariners could have gained a game on the Houston Astros in the American League West and a game in the AL Wild Card standings. But Sunday wasn't a total missed opportunity. The Boston Red Sox gave Seattle a couple of assists.
The Red Sox and Minnesota Twins played a pair of games on Sunday to make up for one that was postponed on Saturday.
Boston took both games against Minnesota by scores of 8-1 and 9-3.
The pair of losses have set the Mariners up in a decent spot with six games left in the season.
Seattle is two games behind the Kansas City Royals and Detroit Tigers for the final Wild Card spot and one game behind the Twins.
The Mariners' six remaining games are against Houston and the Oakland Athletics; Kansas City's remaining games are against the Washington Nationals and Atlanta Braves; Detroit's remaining games are against the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago White Sox and Minnesota's final slate includes the Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles.
It's safe to assume that out of all the teams ahead of the Mariners in the playoffs, the Tigers likely have the easiest remaining schedule. But Tampa Bay is still technically alive in the playoff race and could be motivated to play spoiler to Detroit's postseason dreams.
The Twins and Royals are both slipping and even with what should be "easy" respective series against the Marlins and Nationals, there's no guarantee they're going to bounce back.
Seattle's postseason fate has been decided during the last week in each of the last three seasons. And it's starting to look like that trend is going to continue.
