Astros' foe makes unorthodox decision as Houston increases stranglehold on AL West

The Astros haven't seen the Mariners since mid-July, so fans have had to watch gleefully from afar as their only mildly threatening division rivals have tumbled down the standings and have basically played themselves out of playoff contention at this point. The last time the two teams played each other, they were battling for first in the division, with Seattle having slipped down from a 10-game lead in mid-June to an eventual tie by the time the Astros left.

They wrestled for three more weeks before the Mariners started to look like they'd just given up in mid-August. They were swept by the Tigers, dropped two to the Pirates, and were swept again by the Dodgers to put them behind the Astros by 5.5 games, 7.5 out of the Wild Card.

The Dodgers series seemed to be the final straw for the Mariners' front office, because the very next day, they fired their manager of nine years. Scott Servais is out of a job, replaced by longtime Mariners player Dan Wilson.

Mariners fire manager Scott Servais as Astros surge ahead in AL West standings

If the Mariners are hoping that this will be the spark they need to crawl back up into contention, then they're sort of delusional. They have four teams to leapfrog if they want to get into a Wild Card spot — the Astros, Rays, Red Sox, and either the Twins or Royals, who are tied at .559 entering the weekend — and have less than zero momentum after suffering three series losses and two sweeps.

The Astros, meanwhile, enjoyed an eight-game winning streak this month and are 13-6 throughout August over the same span of time. While they probably won't be able to make up the difference behind the Guardians to clinch a bye in the postseason, the Mariners are far behind in their rearview mirror at this point. No one's threatening for the division title anymore; September will just be about powering up for the playoffs and making sure the roster is in good shape.

Servais definitely deserved better than he got from the Mariners, who couldn't even tactfully schedule their firing meeting with him so that he didn't have to find out he'd lost his job from a news notification.

Oh, well. The "maybe next year" Mariners will have to go back to the drawing board. Now, all the Astros have to worry about is themselves.