SEATTLE — On a day when the energy hovered between low and "I've felt better in my life" and their eyes felt a little fuzzy from minimal sleep and maximum celebration, the Mariners rolled out a lineup similar to a mid-March Cactus League road game for Saturday afternoon.
But playing in front of another packed T-Mobile Park and knowing there is still a chance to earn the first wild-card spot and get a home series in their first postseason in 21 years, the Mariners pushed through any fatigue — mental, physical, emotional or potable — and picked up a 5-1 victory over the Oakland A's.
"This is one of those games that with everything that happened last night, and you really felt it in the first inning for sure that we don't win this game unless this building was pretty full today," manager Scott Servais said. "So a big shout out to the fans showing up today. That's exactly what you need in the first inning of a game like that where you know everybody's dragging after a long night last night. We came out and got on it right away."
With the win, the Mariners improved to 87-70 on the season. While they clinched a spot in the postseason late Friday night in dramatic fashion and celebrated the accomplishment into Saturday morning, the Mariners still have additional goals before the seasons ends.
"The goal here is still working towards possibility of hosting that first round," Servais said. "We need some help, obviously. If you look at the scoreboard, the Blue Jays continue to roll, but we'll keep doing our thing, keep winning these games and keep it important right down to the final games is what we're hoping for, There would be nothing sweeter than hosting a playoff game at home."
Seattle got a brilliant start from right-hander Luis Castillo and three runs batted in from Sam Haggerty to improve to 87-70 on the season.
Castillo pitched six innings, allowing one run on just two hits with a walk and eight strikeouts to improve to 8-6 on the season and 4-2 with the Mariners.
In a not entirely unexpected development, he was a little shaky in the first inning. He gave up a single to Tony Kemp to start the game. After striking out Vimael Machin, Castillo issued his only walk of the game to Sean Murphy on five pitches. He came back to get Seth Brown to line out to right for the second out and seemed poised to work out of the inning unscathed. But Jordan Diaz was able to connect on a 2-2 slider with an awkward swing that broke his bat and looped a single into right field that scored Kemp.
Castillo wouldn't allow another baserunner for the rest of his outing, striking out Conner Capel to end the inning and then working 1-2-3 innings the rest of his outing.
