On Friday, the Seattle Mariners defeated the Los Angeles Angels courtesy of a big homer by catcher Mitch Garver.
He broke a 1-1 tie in the 7th inning with a home run.
As a result, the Mariners are locked in a tie with the Houston Astros for first place in the AL West at 80-68. Also, they are in a tight battle with the Texas Rangers for the Wild Card.
Nevertheless, they are in a prime position to win it all.
Afterward, Garver made the bold declaration that the Mariners are a championship team in the making in the way they won, per Josh Kirshenbaum of MLB.com.
“That’s what championship teams do,” Garver said. “You never know who’s going to do it that night. It could be Cal [Raleigh], it could be Julio [Rodríguez] — those are the usual suspects — but it could be Leo [Rivas]. It could be myself. You never know.”
Mariners manager Dan Wilson attributed a team effort in getting them closer to the finish line.
“It takes contributions up and down,” Wilson said. “That’s a really important thing here late in the year, and it’s great to see.”
This week, the Mariners engaged in marathon battles. On Wednesday, they edged out the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 in 13 innings. They defeated the Angels 7-6 in 12 innings on Thursday.
“That’s baseball,” Garver said. “I’m picking good pitches to hit and trying to hit them as hard as I can. My three outs before that were all one-hoppers to the shortstop. So that last one, I was trying to aim it at the shortstop — and hit it over the fence.”
The parallels between the Mariners of 2025 and 1995
The Mariners resurgence coincides with the 30th anniversary of the 1995 team that helped keep baseball in Seattle.
At that time, the Mariners made a remarkable 13 game comeback to win the AL West in a one game playoff win over the Angels. Lately, the Mariners of present day have overcome some midseason struggles to tie for the division lead.
Also, they are in the middle of a five game winning streak. Furthermore, each team was led by a solid core.
In 1995, they had Ken Griffey Jr., Edgar Martinez, Jay Buhner, and Joey Cora. This year, they have Julio Rodríguez, Cal Raleigh, and Jorge Polanco.
On the mound, the Mariners of '95 had Randy Johnson winning the Cy Young. This time around, they got Bryan Woo fighting his way through injury and the bullpen really coming through in a big way.
