Leo Rivas hit a walkoff, two-run home run the 13th inning to lift the Mariners past the St. Louis Cardinals 4-2 Wednesday night. With the win, Seattle kept pace with the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers in the American League playoff race.<\/p>\n
The home run came in Rivas\u2019 first at-bat after pinch-running in the 11th inning. It was just his second career home run.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Seattle\u2019s bullpen came up big for a second straight night as it covered 8 1\/3 innings and allowed only one unearned run. Emerson Hancock pitched two scoreless innings to earn his first career win as a reliever.<\/p>\n
Seattle\u2019s win coincided with the Astros beating the Blue Jays 3-2 on Yanier Diaz\u2019s solo home run in the ninth inning and the Rangers beating Milwaukee 6-3 to finish off a three-game sweep of the MLB-leading Brewers. At 77-68, the Mariners are one game back of Houston for first place in the AL West and 1 1\/2 games ahead of Texas for the final wild card berth.<\/p>\n
The Mariners did receive a little help when it comes to trying to climb up the wild card standings. The New York Yankees lost 11-1 to the Tigers, and the Boston Red Sox lost 5-4 to the Athletics. Seattle is now 2 1\/2 games behind both for the first and second wild card berths.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the AL playoff race, the Kansas City Royals beat the Cleveland Guardians 4-3. The Mariners are four games in front of the Royals and 3 1\/2 games in front of Cleveland in the wild card chase.<\/p>\n
Playoff odds<\/p>\n
The Mariners have a 84.5% chance of reaching the playoffs and 41.3% chance to win the AL West, per FanGraphs<\/a>. Houston has 52.3% odds to win the division and Texas 6.3%.<\/p>\n Schedule watch<\/p>\n The Mariners have the 27th-toughest remaining schedule in the league with an opponents\u2019 winning percentage of .471, per Tankathon<\/a>. Only the Yankees (.469) have an easier remaining schedule among teams in the AL playoff race.<\/p>\n Seattle begins a four-game home series with the Los Angeles Angels (69-77) on Thursday at 6:40 p.m. Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller (4-5 record, 5.53 ERA) is set to take on right-hander Jos\u00e9\u00a0Soriano (10-10, 4.07).\u00a0Radio coverage<\/a> begins with the pregame show at 5:30 p.m. on Seattle Sports 710 AM and the Seattle Sports app.<\/p>\n More Seattle Mariners coverage<\/p>\n \u2022 Seattle Mariners sending 7 prospects to Arizona Fall League<\/a>
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\u2022\u00a0With this version of Julio, Mariners can \u2018legitimately\u2019 win it all<\/a><\/p>\n
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