Important 2-Week Stretch for Mariners

Looking at the schedule for the next 2 weeks, the Mariners have a huge opportunity to gain ground on the Angels and extend their Wildcard lead.

Over the next 2 weeks the Mariners play 6 games against Chicago, 6 games against Minnesota and 1 against Baltimore.

The Yankees play Cleveland 3 times, Detroit 4 times, and Anaheim 3 times. They have a series against Baltimore in the middle of that stretch.

Anaheim (I refuse to call them LA), they play the Yankees 3 times and Boston 4 times including a double-header on the 17th.

Detroit and Cleveland play each other 5 times. The Indians play NY 3 times and Detroit plays them 4 times.

All of those teams are relatively even, it is not crazy to think that most of the series will be split down the middle with all the teams not moving up or down too much in the standings. The Mariners play teams with a combined record of 274-290 14 games under .500 (Chicago and Minnesota’s records were added twice because they play them twice).

Let’s take a look at the records of the teams the other contenders have to play:
Anaheim: 247-207 (40 games over)
New York: 245-207 (38 games over)
Cleveland: 285-281 (4 games over)
Detroit: 289-231 (58 games over)

Clearly, the Mariners play the easiest schedule and cannot afford to let this golden opportunity slip away from them. With Ibanez and Sexson warming up I would expect the Mariners to turn it up and extend the Wildcard lead.

Here are the 5 team’s schedules from August 9 through August 22-23
Seattle –
8/9 @ Baltimore
8/10-12 @ Chicago
8/13-15 Minnesota
8/16 OFF DAY
8/17-19 Chicago
8/20-22 @Minnesota

Anaheim –
8/9 OFF DAY
8/10-12 Minnesota
8/13 OFF DAY
8/14-16 @ Toronto
8/17-19 @ Boston (Double-header on 8/17)
8/20-22 New York

New York -
8/9 OFF DAY
8/10-12 @ Cleveland
8/13-15 Baltimore
8/16-19 Detroit
8/20-22 @ Anaheim

Cleveland -
8/9 @ Chicago
8/10-12 New York
8/13 OFF DAY
8/14-15 Detroit
8/16 OFF DAY
8/17-19 @ Tampa Bay
8/20 OFF DAY
8/21-23 @ Detroit

Detroit -
8/9 Tampa Bay
8/10-13 Oakland
8/14-15 @ Cleveland
8/16-19 @ New York
8/20 OFF DAY
8/21-23 Cleveland