Seattle falls into tie for wild card with A’s

SEATTLE — One team gave up eight runs in a loss. The other team scored eight runs in a win. And their two very different outcomes have left them tied for the second wild-card spot in the American League.

Once 11 games back for that spot in mid-June, the Oakland A’s have been on a torrid run of wins and quality baseball since then, devouring the Mariners’ lead for that postseason spot. A decisive 8-3 win over the Blue Jays at the Coliseum on Wednesday improved the A’s record to 64-46.

Meanwhile, Seattle was slogging its way through a lackluster 8-3 home drubbing by the Astros, resulting in a second straight series loss and falling to 63-45.

It was the Mariners’ 13th loss in their last 20 games.

The Astros roughed up Seattle starter Wade LeBlanc and reliever Nick Vincent for all of their runs while the Mariners failed to score more than three runs in a game for the 16th time since July 1 — a span of 24 games. Since June 14, the A’s have rolled to a 29-10 record to push themselves even with Seattle. During that same span, the Mariners have gone 19-20, and just 10-14 since July 1. An offense that’s averaging just over three runs per game is showing only minimal signs of finding some life. The Mariners had gotten to three games behind the Astros with Monday’s 2-0 win. But Houston outscored them 13-5 over the next two games to push the lead back to five games and serve a reminder about the pecking order in the division.