The Seattle Mariners have the longest playoff drought in Major League Baseball, last making it in 2001. How long ago was that? Future Hall-of-Famer Ichiro Suzuki was a rookie, at least in American baseball terms. The Mariners are on a 14-game winning streak as they open their second half tonight vs. the visiting Houston Astros, and Seattle is a solid favorite at Caesars Sportsbook to return to the postseason – but a short underdog tonight.
A s recently as June 20, the Mariners were 29-39 and had a 5.3 percent chance of making the playoffs via FanGraphs. But a switch seemingly flipped with an 8-2 win in Oakland on June 21 and Seattle hasn't lost a series since. The team's streak of eight consecutive series wins is its longest since taking 14 straight from July 27-Sept. 20, 2001.
The 14-game winning streak has tied Atlanta for the longest in the majors this season and is one shy of the franchise record of 15 in a row set from May 23-June 8, 2001. Remember, that '01 team won an MLB-record 116 games overall but failed to make the World Series. Seattle has never reached the Fall Classic and is +1800 to win its first AL pennant.
FanGraphs now gives Seattle a 69.2 percent of reaching the postseason – although it likely will have to claim one of the three Wild-Card spots, as Houston still has a huge lead atop the AL West – and Caesars gives the M's odds of -175 to make it, with no at +145.