SEATTLE _ For the many kids who filled the stands of Safeco Field on Sunday, simply happy to spend one last afternoon at the ballpark with their family, where potentially getting cotton candy or a souvenir was the important reward, the significance of the Mariners' failure in 2018 is largely lost upon them.
The Mariners' 3-1 victory over the Rangers on the final day of 2018 season wasn't a "meaningless" game to them because they were at a baseball game instead of doing something else. Some day soon that will change and they will begin to think otherwise. Kids become adults and things like Kyle Seager's diminished on-base percentage, Mike Zunino's strikeout rate, Felix Hernandez's worst season in his career and the failure to play something other than the regular season becomes more important than seeing the Moose.
And that's happened for a generation of fans who were kids back in 2001, the last time the Mariners played in the postseason. They've now watched the last 17 seasons end for Seattle after game No. 162. Only once in that span _ 2014 _ did that final game have postseason meaning _ and that was only for five innings.
The longest postseason drought in the four major professional sports continues. It's unwanted notoriety.
While a handful of teams and their fans prepare the thrill of the postseason, Seattle joins the 21 other teams in beginning the countdown to pitchers and catchers reporting to spring training sometime in early February.
Sure, the Mariners finished with an 89-73 record, which is the fifth best record in club history. That accomplishment isn't lost on Mariners manager Scott Servais or his players, but it feels hollow as they all prepare to go their separate ways into the offseason.
"I felt that we failed," Servais said. "We didn't get over the hump. We didn't get into the playoffs; Some of that was out of our control. You look at what Oakland did and they pace they were on. They just didn't back off, so you have give them a ton of credit."
It wasn't supposed to be this way. For the first three months of the season, the idea of the first postseason appearance since that magical 116-win season in 2001 seemed very real. The Mariners overachieved past middling preseason expectation and the suspension of Robinson Cano.
The numbers have been mentioned before. But on the morning of June 16, the Mariners were 45-25 and 11 games up over the A's, who were 34-36, for the second wild card. Since then, Seattle posted a 44-48 record after that date to 89-73, while Oakland went on a stunning run of .700 baseball, posting a 64-28 record from that date, finishing 98-64 while earning the second wild spot. For as much as people want to believe the Mariners gave the postseason spot away, Oakland probably did more to rip it away from Seattle, who would have had to post a 53-39 to keep pace.
"We did a lot of good things," Servais said. "We didn't do enough. I guess that's how I will look back on the season."
A crowd of 21,146 watched the season finale on Kids Appreciation day. It gave Seattle a preliminary home season attendance of 2,300,162, which is the most since the 2008 season The Mariners got two runs in the second inning and picked up another in the fifth inning, while five pitchers, led by starter Roenis Elias, combined to limit Texas to one run on four hits.
