Mariners miss playoffs for 17th straight year
The Seattle Mariners thumped the Texas Rangers 13-0 on Saturday night. It wasn't enough to save their season.
Thanks to the Oakland Athletics' 3-2 win over the Minnesota Twins, the Mariners were eliminated from postseason contention Saturday, making it 17 straight seasons that they've missed the playoffs.
Seattle's elimination came in the cruelest of fashions, too, as the A's won their game on a walk-off wild pitch from Minnesota reliever Trevor Hildenberger.
We’re 13-0-2 in our last 15 home series, which is our longest streak without a home-series loss since 1931! (17-0-2)#HeroTown pic.twitter.com/0xjpcu9RAv
— Oakland Athletics 🌳🐘⚾️ (@Athletics) September 23, 2018
The Mariners' postseason drought, which dates back to 2002, is the longest active drought in the four major North American professional sports. They took over the record in January when the Buffalo Bills made the NFL playoffs for the first time in 18 years.
Longest active playoff droughts in North American sports
| League | Team | Years (Last time in playoffs) |
|---|---|---|
| MLB | Seattle Mariners | 17 (2001) |
| NFL | Cleveland Browns | 15 (2002) |
| MLB | Miami Marlins | 15 (2003) |
| NBA | Sacramento Kings | 12 (2006) |
| MLB | San Diego Padres | 11 (2006) |
| NFL | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 10 (2007) |
| NHL | Carolina Hurricanes | 9 (2009) |
Seattle last reached the playoffs in 2001, when they won an all-time record-tying 116 games in the regular season. They came closest to ending the drought in 2003, when they won 93 games but finished three back of Oakland in the AL West, and in 2016 when they ended the year three behind Baltimore for the final wild-card spot.
Although the team got off to a hot start in 2018, Seattle's fate was sealed by a mediocre second half, as Scott Servais' team is now just 27-30 since the All-Star break.
Although they will miss the playoffs, the Mariners are still in position to win 90 games for the first time since 2003.
Oakland, meanwhile, not only eliminated the Mariners on Saturday but dropped its magic number to clinch a playoff spot to one.