harmony

Adaptability can be an asset. Still I have been in a marriage for 27 years, the same job for 25 years and the same house for 19 years. I don't follow football much but I pull for my childhood favorite college team against the university where I have two advanced degrees when the two Big Ten rivals meet each November. Perhaps that's loyalty.

Not especially. The Padres are my favorite National League team because of my wife's roots in San Diego. I have two adult daughters, one in Oakland and one in San Diego, so I follow those teams even if my daughters don't.

Any homefield advantage is outweighed by the homefield disadvantage on road games.

Uh, the Mariners have the significant disadvantage of traveling to 81 games on the road, easily the most strenuous travel schedule in baseball: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/visuals/map The Mariners and other West Coast teams also deal with rainout makeup games east of the Rockies while West Coast games are almost never rained out.

Note the company the Padres keep in the 538 rankings: https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/2021-mlb-predictions/

What a collapse by the Padres! Half of Seattle's negative 48 run differential can be traced to the Padres' three-game sweep in May when the Mariners were outscored 31-7.

I switched from the Twins to the World Series-bound Royals in 1980 while attending law school 200 miles from Kansas City. I switched to the Colorado Rockies for their inaugural 1993 season after living in the Rocky Mountain West for six years. I switched to the Mariners for their magical 1995 season after moving to the Pacific Northwest shortly before the strike ended the 1994 season.

Growing up a Minnesota Twins fan this poster remembers the Twins with a one-game lead over the Red Sox with two games remaining at Fenway Park the final weekend of the 1967 season. The Red Sox swept their way into the World Series. This poster is no stranger to disappointment. The Seattle Mariners caught a break this weekend when the Los Angeles Angels scratched Shohei Ohtani from his scheduled Sunday start. The Mariners will send Marco Gonzales, Chris Flexen and Tyler Anderson to the mound for the three-game home stand against the Angels. Gonzales is 7-0 with a 2.57 ERA over his last 11 starts. Flexen had a 3.67 ERA in 30 starts this year. Anderson has a 4.50 ERA in 12 starts with the Mariners despite giving up nine earned runs in two innings on Saturday (Anderson came back with four solid innings Tuesday on only two days rest). Regardless of how the season ends for the Mariners, the September run has provided valuable experience for rookies Jarred Kelenic, Logan Gilbert, Jake Fraley and Cal Raleigh. Fraley and Kelenic had critical two-run doubles in the pair of 4-2 wins over the Athletics on Tuesday and Wednesday. After Wednesday's outing Gilbert has a 2.70 ERA in six September starts and may get the call if the Mariners advance to a play-in or Wild Card game. Let the games begin.

The top four teams in the AL East have a 54-23 record in interleague play against the NL East (with three games remaining) while the top four teams in the AL West have a 40-40 record against the far tougher NL West. There's the difference in overall wins. Overall the AL East is 61-36 against the NL East while the AL West is 47-53 against the NL West. The myth is that the Big Bad American League East is a dominant division. The AL East is among several competitive divisions in baseball. Major League Baseball is a big business and it's hard to dispute that the AL East is a major revenue generator in that big business. As a result, Major League Baseball and the baseball media pander to the AL East. Those solid business decisions may lead to a public misperception about the comparative strength of the AL East. The numbers, however, suggest relative parity on the field. Let's enjoy the final days of the 2021 regular season.

The difference is highly relevant in a discussion about four potential 90-game winners in the AL East. And the wins are unlikely to be distributed evenly among the top four teams. The chances of having multiple 90-game winners are significantly reduced.

FWIW this year the AL East will finish with a winning record in head-to-head competition against the AL West, currently holding an 83-81 edge with only today's matchup of the Astros and Rays remaining.

The Baltimore Orioles deserve some credit if the AL East ends up with four 90-win teams. FWIW in 2002 three clubs in the four-team AL West posted at least 93 wins apiece (without a 107-loss team in the division): https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2002-standings.shtml In 2002 the 93-win Seattle Mariners would have tied the Red Sox for a second Wild Card slot; the Mariners won the season series with the Red Sox that year.

Zac Lowther allowed no runs through five innings his last start: https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=lowthza01&t=p&year=2021 ... and had a quality start (6 IP, 1 R) earlier this month.

Oakland righthander Frankie Montas is 0-1 with a 5.25 ERA in two starts against the Seattle Mariners this year. FWIW the former Red Sox farmhand looked fairly strong when I saw Montas pitch last month: MLB Gameday: Padres 4, Athletics 5 Final Score (08/04/2021) | MLB.com WWW.MLB.COM Follow MLB results with FREE box scores, pitch-by-pitch strikezone info, and Statcast data for Padres vs. Athletics at Oakland Coliseum The Athletics might be due: The Mariners have won 11 straight against the A's, the longest winning streak in MLB history against an opponent that was 10+ games over .500 entering every game of the streak.

Late last night I kept thinking about being in the lower level down the rightfield line at T-Mobile Park earlier this month in Seattle for the rubber game of the three-game series (and season series) with the Red Sox. Tied game, two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Jake Bauers at first base, and Jarred Kelenic hits a screamer that lands just foul down the rightfield line. Had the ball landed fair, the speedy Bauers would have been off running for the potential game-winning run, testing the powerful arm of Hunter Renfroe. Instead, the Red Sox won in an extra inning. Every team has its "what ifs" each season. Let's enjoy the final days of the 2021 regular season.

Correction: With Tuesday's win the Seattle Mariners are 88-70, a half game behind the Red Sox, with four games remaining.

Hard to top the misery on this forum.

This year the Seattle Mariners posted a 19-15 (.559) record against AL East teams. https://www.espn.com/mlb/standings/_/view/vs-division The Yankees were the only AL East team with a winning record against the AL West this year. And, as moonslav noted, the AL East teams boosted their records with the easier draw in interleague play this year. Since 2018 (including the "all-time great" Red Sox club), the AL West has a winning record in head-to-head competition against the AL East (although it's a virtual tie).

True ... ... although since June 13 the Mariners have a positive 14 run differential while the Red Sox have a positive 31 run differential over the same period.

Time to cherry-pick arbitrary dates. Since August 21 of last year, the Seattle Mariners are 106-84, the Houston Astros 105-86 and the Boston Red Sox 104-86. Since June 12 of this year the Mariners are 56-35 while the Red Sox are 49-42. The Red Sox are likely headed to the postseason while the Mariners probably won't advance past the regular season for the 20th year in a row. That's life.

Poor Matt Andriese is available again after being designated for assignment Tuesday despite striking out the side Monday evening in the 1-2-3 ninth inning of Seattle's 13-4 win over Oakland. MLB Gameday: Athletics 4, Mariners 13 Final Score (09/27/2021) | MLB.com WWW.MLB.COM Follow MLB results with FREE box scores, pitch-by-pitch strikezone info, and Statcast data for Athletics vs. Mariners at T-Mobile Park

Deja vu. The 2018 Seattle Mariners posted an 89-73 record with a negative 34 run differential. The 2021 Mariners are 87-70 with a negative 52 run differential. Despite the 89 wins, following the 2018 season Seattle management decided to "step back" by trading Edwin Diaz, Robinson Cano, James Paxton, Jean Segura, Mike Zunino and Alex Colome. The reported reasoning was that the Houston Astros and Oakland Athletics appeared too formidable to overtake in 2019 or 2020. Fast forward to today and the Athletics seem vulnerable with an arbitration class that the A's probably can't afford. The Astros are no longer the club that finished 14 games ahead of the Mariners in 2018. Historically the Mariners have not had the fiscal constraints of the Athletics. Like the 2011-13 Astros, who were criticized for low budgets while losing 324 games, the Mariners have been saving their money for the appropriate time to spend. This offseason may be the time for the Mariners to spend on the free agent market to complement the developing core.

Indeed the franchises may be headed in opposite directions. Or not.

The Seattle Mariners have 87 wins with a 2021 payroll of $81.8 million while the Oakland Athletics have 85 wins with a 2021 payroll of $89.2 million: https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/payroll/ FWIW the Mariners are 13-4 against the A's this year after Monday's 13-4 thrashing.

If not Edwin Diaz, how about Seattle reliever Diego Castillo, who has AL East experience (and is the same age as Diaz) but who remains under team control for three arbitration years? Diaz has an ERA of 3.25 and an ERA+ of 127 in 341 career appearances while Castillo has an ERA of 2.97 and an ERA+ of 141 in 188 career appearances. The Seattle bullpen will welcome Ken Giles and Andres Munoz in 2023 but the problem is that the Mariners and Red Sox do not match up well in a trade.