On Friday night, the Seattle Mariners beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 to improve to 29-29 on the campaign.

The M's have now won four straight games to propel themselves back into first place in the American League West, where they lead the Athletics by 1.5 games.

The first 58 games have been a slog for the Mariners, marred by inconsistent play, sloppy defense and a rash of injuries, but they are starting to get hot at the right time, hopefully setting themselves up for a summer to remember.

Speaking before Friday's game, 'Foul Territory TV' national host Scott Braun told the 'Refuse to Lose Territory' podcast that he thinks the AL West is the Mariners division.

"This happens often. You know, fan bases follow the day-to-day so frequently that you sometimes don't look, take a step back and go, 'wait, this team's contending for a division spot?' We're not even a third of the way into the season.

They have elite starting pitching. There's good enough health: fan bases will do this, too. 'Oh, we've been through all these injuries.' Hold up. Have you or did you look at the rest of the league and weigh that every single team goes through injuries?

And for me, the Mariners are one of the more healthy teams right now, and that's a good spot to be in. And that's also keeping in mind that they did have a pretty grueling marathon through the end of last year. M's fans might listen to say 'no' and bring up a name or two, but overall, this team's been pretty healthy, knock on wood, compared to the Houston Astros, just to bring up a team in their division.

I think the national perception of the Mariners is that they're really good. Like to see a little bit more from the offense, but you're not too concerned. Of course, Cal's (Raleigh) going to come back and not look like he did in the beginning of the year.

So, I would say people think that they're contenders. We certainly feel that way on our show. Are they running away with the division? No, but it's again, about 30 percent into the season. 70 percent of the way into the season, could they be up 10, 12 games? I would not be surprised at all.

So I think they're the favorite in the division by far."

The Mariners won the American League West in 2025 for the first time since 2001, advancing to the American League Championship Series.

You can listen to the most recent edition of the 'Refuse To Lose Territory' podcast featuring Foul Territory TV host Scott Braun here, or you can watch the episode on YouTube.

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