SEATTLE _ The Mariners are in position to do something they haven't done all season, which is this: If they win on Tuesday, they will have won their fifth consecutive game, their longest winning streak of the season.
That's only possible, of course, because the Mariners won their fourth straight game on Monday, beating the Detroit Tigers, 3-0. The Tigers entered the night holding the second spot in the American League wild-card race, meaning the Mariners need to leap them in order to make the playoffs.
The Mariners are also chasing the Blue Jays (who won on Monday) and the Red Sox (who didn't play). The Mariners haven't won four straight games in more than a month.
The Mariners beat the Tigers behind three forces: a strong and efficient outing from starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, RBI singles from third baseman Kyle Seager and catcher Mike Zunino in the second inning and overpowering relief pitching in the final two innings. That was the formula.
Iwakuma turned in one of his better starts this season. He lasted seven scoreless innings and allowed only five hits. He had base runners in each of the first four innings but retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced.
He struck out eight hitters and issued only one walk.
The Mariners had just five hits through seven innings, but they bunched together three of those hits in the second inning, and that was good enough.
Facing Tigers starter Michael Fulmer, who entered the night with a 2.42 ERA, the Mariners were patient and opportunistic early in the game.
Nelson Cruz led off the second inning with a double, and Seager drove him in with an RBI single.
Leonys Martin worked a walk later in the inning, and Zunino drove in the inning's second run with another RBI single.
After Iwakuma exited in the seventh inning, the Mariners called on reliever Arquimedes Caminero. If that name is unfamiliar to you, it's because the Mariners just acquired him from the Pirates in a trade on Saturday and just added him to their 25-man roster on Monday.
Caminero has a reputation for being a hard thrower with occasionally erratic control, but he retired the side in his Mariners debut.
In the bottom half of the eighth inning, Norichika Aoki doubled with two outs and pinch-hitter Guillermo Heredia drove him in with a single.
That brought on closer Edwin Diaz, who quickly shut down the Tigers for his fifth save.
