Eight days ago, just after the Mariners had taken a 2-0 series lead on the road en route to what loomed as a disposal of the Blue Jays, I happened into the local Costco. At the entry door, a hard-bitten-looking woman, up in years, called to her counterpart on the other side.

“Have we ever won the World Series?” she rasped.

If she didn’t know it then, she knows the answer now: No, they haven’t. Because they haven’t gotten there.

It seemed odd Monday night when Fox TV announcer Joe Davis described Toronto’s 32-year absence from the World Series as “painful.” Maybe it’s my advancing years, but that doesn’t seem so long ago. Hell, I even remember where I was when Joe Carter launched his walk-off homer to win the Jays their second straight title.

You want pain, go to the seventh inning of ALCS Game 7, when Eduard Bazardo coughed up George Springer’s three-run homer to send the Mariners home, yet again without a berth in the World Series. Mariner deprivation from the Fall Classic is now measured in half-centuries – next season will be the 50th of the club’s existence.

Pick your whipping boy: Bazardo, Dan Wilson, bad luck. This looked like a tired baseball team as the playoffs wore on, and the injury to Bryan Woo was pivotal. The Mariner starters were mostly nails against Detroit, but except for Bryce Miller twice and George Kirby in Game 7, missing in action against the Blue Jays.

It’s cruelly fitting that the luscious prospect of the World Series gives way to another crashing disappointment. This was a mercurial Mariner season. Believe it or not, this team was swept in a three-game series eight times. It dived, it rose, it plummeted again, like a carnival ride broken loose, ultimately rescued in the regular season by the 17 wins-in-18-games heater.

There’s something missing here, and for lack of a better term, I think it’s between the ears. A club so reliant on analytics can’t seem to move a runner from second to third with a productive out, and in most cases, it doesn’t seem to try. It doesn’t run the bases well. Guys get picked off. Leo Rivas got picked off in Game 4 of the Toronto series, and it very nearly happened again to him in Game 6.

The overall baseball IQ seems lacking. On Sept. 3 at Tampa, the Mariners were retired in the first inning on three pitches. Who allows that to happen?

They’ve become a power-hitting team that seems to rely on the long ball to the exclusion of common sense. The bunt is almost obsolete, left to be scorned by the analytics honks.

Attention to detail seems wanting, and if I’m Dan Wilson, the first day of spring training in February, I’m preaching the need to do the little things right.

I hope the post-season run is a pointed reminder to Mariner ownership: Look what can happen if you spend a little money. You don’t need to be like the Mets or Dodgers, just be in this thing. You owned the city in September and October. The crowds at T-Mobile Park were electric. You couldn’t go anywhere in the region without seeing Mariner gear.

On October 21, I don’t think it’s unfair to say the off-season will be a failure if they don’t re-sign Josh Naylor. On the other hand, I wouldn’t bring back Geno Suarez, despite the wonderful clubhouse presence. He hit .186 in August, .190 in September, and notwithstanding his mammoth, memorable Game 5 against Toronto, .213 in the post-season. And he’s 34.

Jorge Polanco, 32, was a revelation but can choose free agency rather than picking up a player option for 2026 at $6 million. If he returns, the jigsaw puzzle must account for Cole Young, who seems ready to become a fixture at second base. Perhaps Polanco then becomes a half-time designated hitter.

But that discussion is somewhere near “acceptance” on the continuum of grieving’s five stages. Right now, we’re swimming in denial/anger/depression.

On a light-rail platform near the stadium after Game 3, I overheard a fellow lamenting the state of affairs, when the Blue Jays won 13-4 and began chasing down the Mariners.
“It’s my birthday,” he said. “The worst thing is, they lost that 18-inning game [the 1-0 marathon to the Astros in 2022] the same day.”

Heavy as the crash feels today, I have to think the Mariner brass is salivating at what’s to come, the idea of melding the current roster with a gaggle of Top 100 prospects – Colt Emerson, Laz Montes, Michael Arroyo, Jonny Farmelo, Kade Anderson, etc.

“This feels like a beginning, not the end,” ESPN analyst Jeff Passan told 710 radio here Tuesday, “It’ll happen in the next five years.”

And among Mariner faithful, what’s five years?