The last time the Mariners finished in first place was 22 years ago, in 2001, when they produced one of the best regular seasons in history, winning 116 games under Lou Piniella. That was also the last time they won the American League West, and the last time they made it as far as the AL Championship Series. But they have a chance to do both this time. They have risen up in the late summer. So has a great baseball city, where their fans are seeing what we’re all seeing, which is that the Mariners are playing as well as anybody right now.

In a season of so many surprises in baseball, in what has really been such a terrific season all over the map, the Mariners are hardly the biggest. They’re just the latest, as they’ve made their run at the Rangers and the Astros in the West.

They went toe to toe in their AL Division Series against the Astros last October after taking out Toronto in the Wild Card Series. But then they ran into Yordan Alvarez in Game 1. He went deep and knocked in five and the Astros scored five runs in the last two innings and finally won, 8-7. The Astros finally swept the three-game series in a truly epic Game 3, 1-0, in 18 innings, with the Mariners holding on to their season that long before Jeremy Peña hit the home run that beat them. But they had given the team that would go on to win the World Series all it wanted. And more.

Now here they come again. They go into Thursday a game-and-a-half behind the Rangers, and a half-game behind the Astros. And if the Mariners had been able to close out the bottom of the ninth against the White Sox on Wednesday afternoon, they would have ended the night in second place. With a lot of season left. Coming as hard at the Rangers and Astros as they are.

If they had been able to close out the White Sox, that would have meant a 9-1 road trip for them. Now they come home for six games against the Royals and the A’s, which means there is a very good chance that manager Scott Servais’ team, which was 11-16 to start the season and still at 50-50 a month ago, could be on top of the AL West by the end of next week. All of this means that the Mariners very much matter again in the Pacific Northwest, and they should, because it is good for baseball.

Of course Ken Griffey Jr. was a star kid once, briefly playing with another young star like Alex Rodriguez. But even after Rodriguez became a free agent and left for the Rangers, and Junior went off to play for his dad’s old team in Cincinnati, the Mariners won 116 without them, back when Hall of Famer Edgar Martinez was still there, and their other best hitters were Ichiro Suzuki, John Olerud, Bret Boone and Mike Cameron. Their top four starters in 2001 -- Freddy Garcia, Aaron Sele, Jamie Moyer, Paul Abbott -- combined for an amazing won-loss record of 70-21.

Now the face of their franchise is 22-year-old Julio Rodríguez, coming off an historic hot streak that saw him get 17 hits in a four-game span. The streak included a 4-for-6 game and then a 5-for-5. The kid has now hit 20 homers and stolen 20 bases in his first two seasons in the big leagues, only the second player to ever do that.

“It’s as good as I’ve seen a player,” Servais said the other day. “The power, the speed, driving the ball -- it doesn’t matter where the pitch is. ... When he gets on fire, he can carry us.”

The kid has been on fire. So has his team, which wasn’t so terribly far away from going 10-0 on the road trip that concluded in Chicago. The only other loss on the trip was a Royals walk-off in K.C.

The Mariners have played this way even after trading their closer, Paul Sewald, to the D-backs at the Trade Deadline. But they got two useful position players back as part of that deal, Josh Rojas and Dominic Canzone, and they have gone into the mix on Servais’ team along with Rodriguez (21 homers, 80 RBIs) and J.P. Crawford and Eugenio Suárez (tied with Rodriguez at 80 RBIs) and Teoscar Hernández, who has hit 19 homers for the Mariners and knocked in 69.

No one could compare this team to the ’01 team, with its regular season for the ages. But that team had a bunch of tough, professional hitters, and so does this one. And even though the top of Servais’ rotation doesn’t have the record that Sweet Lou’s guys did that year, they have a right to feel as if their top four starters -- Luis Castillo, Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryce Miller -- stack up just fine with any rotation in their division. Or their league.

The Mariners matter again. Good thing for their sport, great for their city and their fans. They were knocking on the door last October. Maybe this is the year when they kick the door all the way in, and finally make it to the World Series. First things first. Meaning first place. Been a while in Seattle.