MLB

Pete Rose, who won two World Series titles with his hometown Cincinnati Reds on his path to breaking the all-time hits record but whose stardom disintegrated after he was caught gambling on his team as manager, leading to his banishment from the game and exclusion from the Hall of Fame, died Monday in Clark County, Nevada. He was 83.

A year ago, Seattle Mariners chairman John Stanton promised that player payroll would increase for the 2024 season. And it did … on the margins.

SEATTLE – Their unique bond never wavered despite different personalities.

SEATTLE – The formality of a planned news conference from the interview room of T-Mobile Park with a dais, microphones and Mariners’ logo backdrop was replaced by a wooden bench in the first-base dugout on a chilly Saturday afternoon before the penultimate game of the regular season with a handful of media members surrounding him.

SEATTLE – This much can be said about the Seattle Mariners as they play out the final series of the 2024 season – a three-game series with a team that is soon to be formerly known as the Oakland A’s – they are playing with the effort of a team still fighting to make the playoffs.

SEATTLE – A team that once led the division by 10 games and was eliminated from postseason consideration 24 hours earlier welcomed a team that had just said goodbye to its home of 59 seasons for the final three games without consequence to end the 2024 season.

SEATTLE – The impossible dream ended with the Seattle Mariners watching helplessly at home and hopelessly waiting for a miracle that was never realized.

SEATTLE – Those standings you’re looking at are nothing more than freshwater ponds in the Sahara.

HOUSTON – They have a pulse.

HOUSTON – Jason Heyward delivered the most devastating of the Astros’ three homers off Logan Gilbert, helping Houston clinch the American League West crown with a 4-3 comeback victory over the Mariners on Tuesday night Minute Maid Park.

HOUSTON – The game on the line, the Mariners’ season most certainly on the line, Dan Wilson stretched his right leg onto the top step of the visitors’ dugout and leaned forward, eyeing his starting pitcher intently.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Most demoralizing loss of the season? The Mariners have had their share of those – it’s an agonizingly long list, to be sure – and Sunday’s 6-5 loss to the Texas Rangers has to rank right up there.

ARLINGTON, Texas – Deep into the left-field corner, Randy Arozarena chased down a Marcus Semien drive for an unlikely game-saving catch – nay, a season-saving catch – to strand the bases loaded in the sixth inning.

ARLINGTON, Texas – They did what they had to do to start their final road trip of the season.

Since the franchise came into existence in 1977, the Seattle Mariners and their fans have seen just about everything. From winning 116 games in 2001, to then going on the longest playoff drought in the four major sports combined, the M’s are becoming highly impressive at finding creative ways to break fans’ hearts year in and year out. And the 2024 season might top them all.

SEATTLE – For at least one more day, the Seattle Mariners can maintain the stubborn hope they can somehow find their way into Major League Baseball’s postseason.

SEATTLE – When it comes to scoreboard watching and hoping for other teams to suffer defeat to aid your postseason hopes, you still must win your own games for it to truly make a difference.

SEATTLE – The Seattle Mariners were trailing by two runs when Victor Robles stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday night.

SEATTLE – In a season filled with brilliant outings from the pitching staff, including the most quality starts in all of Major League Baseball, the unique trio of George Kirby, Trent Thornton and Eduard Bazardo combined for possibly the Mariners’ best overall pitching performance of the season in Sunday’s 7-0 win over the Rangers.