SEATTLE_All they can do is win and wait.
The Seattle Mariners have taken care of the winning aspect lately.
It's the waiting that might be a little more difficult to deal with over the next few days.
In a situation where they basically need to win every game to give themselves a chance at the postseason, the Mariners picked up a must-win with relative ease Friday night at Safeco Field.
The Mariners used four homers _ two from Robinson Cano _ and a solid outing from starter Taijuan Walker to roll to a relatively undramatic 5-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics.
Seattle improved to 86-74 with two games left in the season.
In the wild-card race, they got some help with the Red Sox rallying to defeat the Blue Jays (87-73). But both the Orioles (88-72) and Tigers (86-73) won their respective games.
So the Mariners sit one game behind the Blue Jays for the second wild-card spot and a half-game behind the Tigers, who still have three games left in the regular season.
About 20 minutes after receiving the award as the Mariners' most valuable player this season, Cano continued to exhibit why he earned that honor.
With Norichika Aoki on first base, Cano crushed a 1-1 fastball from Oakland starter Raul Alcantara over the wall in center field for his 37th homer of the season and a quick 2-0 Mariners' lead.
Seattle added to the lead via the long ball from the least expected person.
With two outs in the second inning, Aoki, not known for his power, hammered a 0-1 fastball from Alcantara deep past right field and off the digital scoreboard below the Hit It Here Cafe.
The Mariners continued to stretch the lead via the long ball.
Cano hit his second homer of the night to lead off the third inning, driving a 1-0 changeup over the wall in center.
It gave him 38 homers on the season and it was his 100th RBI.
With Cano inching in on his home-run lead, Nelson Cruz added to his total, slamming a ball over the wall past center field just out of the reach of Jake Smolinski, whose leaping catch attempt came up just short.
The ball actually bounced off something behind the wall and went back into the field play, causing Cruz to pause at second.
But umpires awarded him a homer on the field and later confirmed it via replay to make it 5-0.
A's reliever Zach Neal replaced Alcantara and shut the Mariners bats down, retiring 15 consecutive batters.
Despite some command issues leading to a season-high five walks, Seattle right-hander Taijuan Walker was able to use the ample run support and get through six complete innings, allowing just one run on two hits with three strikeouts.
That lone run came in the sixth inning with the Mariners leading 5-0.
Walker left a 1-1 fastball out over the plate to Ryon Healy that was turned into a solo homer.
The Mariners' bullpen was flawless with Evan Scribner, Nick Vincent and Steve Cishek each working scoreless innings to close out the game.
