Seattle Mariners made a ‘very loud statement’

It was a weekend for the ages for the Seattle Mariners.

In one of their biggest regular-season series in franchise history, the Mariners overpowered their most bitter rival on the road and grabbed complete control of the American League West with a dominant three-game sweep of the Houston Astros.

Job ‘not finished’ for first-place M’s after huge sweep of Astros

The M’s set the tone with a three-hit shutout on Friday. They held on for a dramatic victory on Saturday, capped by Victor Robles’ spectacular diving catch and game-ending double play. And on Sunday, they blitzed the Astros and punctuated the sweep by racing to an early seven-run lead on J.P. Crawford’s grand slam and Cal Raleigh’s 58th homer of the season.

When the dust settled, the Mariners had outscored the Astros 17-7 over the three-game set. They won the season series and the all-important tiebreaker over Houston, finishing the year 8-5 against the Astros. Sndf they’ve now won 14 of their past 15 games overall.

And most importantly, the Mariners now hold a commanding three-game lead atop the AL West that has them closing in on their first division title since 2001.

The Astros, meanwhile, are staring at the end of their lengthy grip atop the AL West. Thanks to the M’s, Houston’s streak of seven straight full-season division titles is now hanging by a thread.

Just how big was the Mariners sweep of the Astros this weekend? Longtime ESPN MLB broadcaster Karl Ravech, who called the series finale on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, shared his thoughts Monday morning on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk.

“I think any time you go on the road and sweep you know your rival in the division to basically assure you’re gonna win your first title since ’01 is a statement,” Ravech said. “I think Raleigh continues to hammer the nail that he’s an MVP with Aaron Judge. I think the pitching was important with (Bryan) Woo’s injury and to see (Logan) Gilbert what he did last night with his splitter and two strikes. Your nine-hole hitter (Crawford) hit a grand slam. And it’s a wide-open league.

“To me, it felt like a very loud statement by Seattle,” he added. “And given the uncertainty of the league, if you were power ranking the American League teams right now, (the Mariners) and probably Toronto are 1 and 1A. I certainly was re-convinced – because we don’t see Seattle very often – how good they are.”

Ravech also highlighted just how pivotal Robles’ catch was.

“If that ball gets down or it gets deflected away and somehow it’s a tie game, and the Mariners lose (closer Andrés) Muñoz and he’s not available for Sunday, and the Astros somehow win that game and you go into Sunday with a chance for Houston to win the series – I mean, as much as Seattle was inflated by that play and the season series going their way, Houston was deflated,” Ravech said.

“So the Mariners were living high when we saw them Sunday early in the afternoon, and the Astros were down on the mat,” he added. “And look, a grand slam will keep you down on the mat. So yeah, (the Mariners are) just a really confident group knowing they’re going home to wrap this whole thing up.”

Listen to the full conversation with ESPN’s Karl Ravech at this link or in the audio player at the bottom of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.