A race well worth watching until the end

Everyone loves a good race, right?

And when it comes to the pennant race in major league baseball, you can’t get enough of it.

But what about those moments when a competitor stumbles and falls? You kind of want to cheer for them to finish strong.

Well, we’re waiting on that team from the Northwest to give us something to cheer about.

AFTER SPENDING a month chasing the second wild-card spot in the American League, it appears as if the Seattle Mariners are doing everything they can to distance themselves from contention.

A six-game losing streak in the final two weeks didn’t help.

And while Mariner manager Scott Servais called Thursday’s game a big game, they still couldn’t find a way to get the job done, getting swept by the Texas Rangers.

At home.

With the team’s best two pitchers — Felix Hernandez and James Paxton — both unable to get to the fifth inning.

Now, Seattle has to jump Texas, the Los Angeles Angels and Minnesota Twins just to earn a shot to get to a one-game postseason date at the New York Yankees.

The downside of it is that both Minnesota and Los Angeles were swept in series earlier in the week, with the Mariners failing to gain a lot of key ground in must-win games. Seattle finishes the regular season at Los Angeles next weekend. It doesn’t get any easier for Seattle either, with them entertaining the hottest team in baseball right now with Cleveland in town this weekend, starting Friday night.

All the Indians have done is win 27 of 28 games to race past Houston for the best record in the American League.

It has been so bad as of late, that some fans are messaging some in the media to stop showing Mariner highlights on television.

We’re ahead of them in that regard — my fault — with a story on the team’s loss on Wednesday failing to make it to the print edition of the paper on Thursday morning.

THEN AGAIN, the race out West isn’t the only one that has left some with sleepless nights.

Most fell in love with the story of the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series.

Imagine the amount of anxiety for the Cubbies if they stumble in this weekend’s series at Milwaukee. Now, the Cubs beat the Brewers in 10 innings on Thursday to remain four games ahead in the NL Central, but with two more (after Friday) against the Brewers and a four-game series starting Monday at St. Louis remaining, one bad week could keep them home for October.

Probably not, but you just never know when it comes to baseball.

We knew at the start of the season that Cleveland was going to be good, but not historic-wins-in-a-row good.

And yes, we knew that the Mariners had the potential to be really good this year as well.

I just thought that I’d be cheering for a playoff bid when the season closed.

Instead of just thrilled that it’s over.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.