One team is fighting, desperately, anxiously, to get back to the postseason for the first time in for-ev-er.
The other team is flexing, easily, confidently, as a favorite to win the World Series for the second year in a row.
The Mariners knew coming into this weekend series against the Atlanta Braves that they would have to be at their best just to be competitive.
Spoiler alert: The Mariners didn’t play their best baseball Friday night.
Robbie Ray was hit around for four runs in five innings, and the Braves homered four times in a 6-4 victory at T-Mobile Park that dropped the Mariners into the third and final American League wild-card position.
Carlos Santana homered twice off Atlanta starter Charlie Morton — the first was a towering, two-run blast off the face of the upper deck above the Hit It Here Cafe in right field — and he had a chance for a third in a crucial situation in the eighth inning.
After Jesse Winker drew a two-out walk, Atlanta reliever Raisel Iglesias struck out Santana swinging at a 2-2 changeup to end the Mariners’ last best chance.
The Braves (87-51), in a rare visit to Seattle, received a warm reception from an announced crowd of 42,114 that was almost half-filled with their fans.
Dansby Swanson hit a two-run home run on the fifth pitch of the game from Ray, and Travis d’Arnaud, Michael Harris and Robbie Grossman homered too as Atlanta won its eighth straight game.
The Braves feature a deep and aggressive-hitting lineup, and they’ve been particularly effective against left-handed pitchers this season. The victory over Ray and the Mariners moved them to 32-13 on the season against lefties, the third-best winning percentage (.711) in MLB.
“Certainly, they were on Robbie early on,” manager Scott Servais said. “We knew coming in that it would be a challenging lineup for Robbie to get through because they are a really good fastball-hitting team. You’ve really got to have your secondary pitches going. They grinded and made him work.”
Ray threw 95 pitches in his five innings, allowing four runs on eight hits with six strikeouts and no walks. He needed 36 just to get through the third inning and had difficulty locating his slider much of the night.
“I think with the slider, I need to be a little more cognizant of when the ‘strike’ slider is good and it’s going to play and when I need to throw one below the zone for swing-and-miss,” Ray said. “I feel like sometimes I get them backwards. … I think everything’s really good. I think maybe just the execution was a little off today. And this is a good-hitting team. You can’t really be off against them.”
Atlanta moved into sole possession of first place in the National League East for the first time this season. The Braves had trailed the New York Mets by as many as 10.5 games in the division.
Since June 1, Atlanta has the best record in baseball at 64-24.
Atlanta, Servais said before the game, is as talented as any team in baseball.
“I think their team this year might be better than it was last year,” he said.
The Braves were relentless Friday.
Santana’s first homer tied the score at 2-2 in the second. His second homer in the seventh was his 10th with the Mariners since his trade from Kansas City in late June.
“Carlos Santana kept us in the game single-handedly,” Servais said. “That was a big home run early in the upper deck. Gosh, you don’t see many of those here.”
Atlanta took the lead in the top of the fourth on a hustle double from Harris, Atlanta’s talented rookie center fielder. Harris took advantage of Winker’s nonchalant approach on a hit into the gap and slid headfirst into second base. He later scored on a Grossman single.
In the fifth, d’Arnaud hit an opposite-field homer just over the wall in right-center off Ray to make it 4-2.
J.P. Crawford turned on a hanging curveball from Morton in the bottom of the fifth to cut the Mariners’ deficit to one. It was Crawford’s first home run since June 1.
Harris then greeted Mariners reliever Matt Festa with an opposite-field homer to left on a 93 mph outside fastball, pushing Atlanta’s lead to 5-3.
Two batters later, Grossman hit a solo homer to right off Festa to make it 6-3.
Santana’s solo homer off Morton in the seventh got Seattle within 6-4.
Cal Raleigh singled with one out to chase Morton.
Atlanta’s A.J. Minter struck out Crawford for the second out, and Julio Rodriguez followed with a five-pitch walk to represent the tying run at first base.
But Minter needed just three pitches to punch out Ty France for the final out of the seventh. France flipped his bat and then his helmet in frustration.
Veteran closer Kenley Jansen retired the bottom of the Mariners’ lineup in order in the ninth to close it out. Swanson made a leaping catch on a Crawford line drive to short to end it, stranding Rodriguez in the on-deck circle.