Mariners on roller-coaster ride to contention

There are some great stories in these wild Wild Card races as we steamroll into September. The Royals’ dream of three straight American League pennants has not died yet. The Yankees are, amazingly, still alive. (Who knew Andrew Miller, Aroldis Chapman and Carlos Beltran were holding them back?) The Pirates have a pulse despite dealing away some pieces. The Marlins are alive without their feared slugger, Giancarlo Stanton.

But no team has more riding on the results of this late-season postseason pursuit than the Mariners, for theirs is not just a battle with the whims of the Wild Card but a bout with the game’s longest ongoing October drought.

And frankly, for the Mariners to be in this position to potentially advance is, well … What’s the right word for it?

“It’s kind of remarkable,” general manager Jerry Dipoto said.

Bingo.

This is a team that has become more platoon-oriented than initially envisioned. A team that, basically, totally remade its bullpen in season (rookie closer Edwin Diaz has been a revelation) and is, in fact, in the course of retooling it again as we speak. A team that has used more DL days for its pitching staff than any other. A team that has already employed 30 active pitchers over the course of the season — and we’re not even to the Sept. 1 roster expansion yet.

Bottom line: It’s a team that makes such frequent use of the transaction wire and has so many comings and goings in the clubhouse that when it went to work on Sunday with the same roster it used on Saturday, first-year manager Scott Servais couldn’t help but crack a joke.

“Playing with the same 25,” Servais said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

What they did on Sunday was lose to the White Sox. They’ve done that in five of their last six, which, you know, doesn’t help.

But the Mariners are accustomed to big swings. They took a 28-18 record into Memorial Day weekend, only to lose 26 of their next 43 going …

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