The Seattle Mariners pulled within a half-game of the second American League wild card berth by beating the Oakland Athletics 4-2 on Tuesday night, thanks to Mitch Haniger who hit his 100th home run and third in two games.

Haniger hit a pair of three-run homers near a banner held by Mariners’ supporters decked in the left field that read “believe”.

The Mariners have won four in a row and nine of 10, making their latest win 11th straight victory over the Oakland Athletics.

Not since losing 11 straight to the New York Yankees from July 5 2010 to July 22, 2011 had the A’s lost 11 straight to a single opponent.

“Going into this year, I don’t know how many people on either team would have said the Mariners are better than us, but the game is proving otherwise,”A’s starter Chris Bassitt said post-game.

“It’s a massive disappointment, no doubt about it.”

“We expected to compete for a World Series and we fell way short. Going to have to basically reassess everything going forward. That’s just the way it is. It sucks,” Bassitt said.

The Mariners finish their series against the A’s on Wednesday, then host the Los Angeles Angels for their final three games of the regular season.

Seattle (88-70) is just behind Boston (88-69) and just ahead of Toronto (87-70) in the wild card race, trailing the New York Yankees (90-67).

“That’s what’s fueling us and firing us,” Mitch Haniger said in post-game interview. 

“I mean, as a team, we want to win every single game the rest of the season, come in every day prepared to win. That’s the goal, to control what we can control, to go out there, take it one game at a time, one pitch at a time. And at the end of the day, I think if we do what we need to do, hopefully we’re in that Wild Card Game.”

The Mariners have established a sense of belief in themselves as they sit just one-and-a-half games back of a postseason spot. Whether they play in next Tuesday’s American League Wild Card Game or not, they sure have found a significant amount of confidence in themselves.

(With inputs from Associated Press)