TORONTO — Robinson Cano dismisses the suggestion the Seattle Mariners are pressing or cracking while going 10-10 in the September heat of their first serious postseason race in more than a decade.
He has a simpler explanation.
“We just aren’t very consistent,” he said. “I don’t think it’s pressing. We are a team that has been like that. We’ll win a few games in a row. And after that, we’ll go and only get three or four hits.”
That’s been the case, certainly, through the first seven games of a grueling 11-game trip that concludes this week with four games against the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre.
The Mariners opened the trip on Sept. 15 by getting just six hits in an 8-1 loss to the Angels in Anaheim, Calif. The next night, they had 14 hits in a 13-2 romp.
They managed a split in the four-game series against the Angels despite getting just seven hits over the final two games.
The Mariners arrived Friday in Houston and hit four homers in a 12-hit attack that carried them to a 10-5 victory but scored just four runs in losing the next two games.
It meant they entered the season’s final week trailing Kansas City by 11/2 games and Oakland by two games for the American League’s two Wild Card slots.
“We have to keep playing our game,” Cano said, “and do our job with men in scoring position. We (can’t) have one game where we score seven or eight runs and the one after that we just get nothing.”
Oddsmakers
Feeling lucky? Before Monday’s games, the Mariners were rated an 11/1 shot to win the American League pennant and a 20/1 to win the World Series in odds posted by Bovada.lv, the online gaming site.
The odds on making the playoffs: You’d get 5/1 if you bet yes, but 1/8 if you bet no.
Three major computer projections severely downgraded the Mariners’ postseason chances after losses Saturday and Sunday at Houston.
Again, these were prior to Monday’s games: ESPN had the Mariners at 13.0 percent; fangraphs.com had them at 17.3 percent, while Baseball Prospectus put them at 20.7 percent.
Short hops
The Mariners carried a 45-32 road record into their final road series of the year. They need one victory in the four-game series to achieve the second-best road record in franchise history. The 2001 club was 59-22 away from Safeco Field. … Lefty James Paxton, when he started Monday, became the 12th native Canadian to play for the Mariners in Toronto. Another Canadian, outfielder Michael Saunders, has five of his 50 career homers at the Rogers Centre. That matches his five homers at Camden Yards in Baltimore as his best in any away park. … The other 10 native Canadians to play for the Mariners in Toronto: Jason Bay, Erik Bedard, Rob Ducey, Mike Gardiner, Dave Pagan, Ryan Radmanovich, Steve Sinclair, Paul Spoljaric, Dave Wainhouse and Jordan Zimmerman.
Looking back
It was 14 years ago Tuesday — Sept, 23, 2000 — that Edgar Martinez broke Babe Ruth’s record for RBI by a player aged 37 or older by getting Nos. 138 and 139 in an 8-2 loss to Oakland at Safeco Field.
Ruth had 137 RBI in 1932 at age 37.
Martinez finished his age-37 season with a league-leading and career-high 145 RBI. That ranks third on the Mariners’ single-season list behind Ken Griffey Jr., who had 147 in 1997 and 146 in 1998.
Elias update
On tap
The Mariners and Blue Jays continue their four-game series at 4:07 p.m. Pacific time Tuesday at the Rogers Centre.
Right-hander Felix Hernandez (14-5 with a 2.07 ERA) will oppose Toronto knuckleballer R.A. Dickey (13-12, 3.82). Root Sports will televise the game.
The series continues at 4:07 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday before concluding at 1:07 p.m. Pacific time Thursday.
The Mariners then return home to finish the regular season with three weekend games against the Los Angeles Angels at Safeco Field.
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