ST. PETERSBURG -- Bryce Miller finished strong in the series finale, an encouraging sign for a Mariners pitching staff that’s reached the stage of the season when workloads on its young arms are coming much more into play. But by the time that the rookie settled in, Seattle was already in a five-run deficit, which was too tall to overcome in a 6-3 loss to the Rays on Sunday afternoon.

The Mariners departed Tropicana Field having dropped six of their past eight games with no time for them to catch their collective breath. A six-hour charter home and a Monday matchup with the Angels await, continuing a stretch  of 13 games in 13 days with no off-days -- starting with a 3-7 road trip, their last of the season to the East Coast.

Unless, of course, they’re back here in three weeks. Seattle could visit Tampa Bay for a best-of-three American League Wild Card Series if the club claims the second Wild Card. Yet, the Mariners embarked on this road trip in search of much more -- their first AL West title since 2001. 

“We all know what’s at stake here,” J.P. Crawford said. There's nothing we can do about this game. It's in the past. We've just got to learn from them.”

• Games remaining: vs. LAA (3), vs. LAD (3), at OAK (3), at TEX (3), vs. HOU (3), vs. TEX (4)
• Standings update: The Mariners (79-64) are 2 1/2 games behind the Astros (82-62) for the AL West lead, with the Rangers (78-64) only a half-game behind Seattle. The Mariners also dropped to the third AL Wild Card spot, one game behind the Blue Jays (80-63).

When they were last in Seattle, the Mariners had just set the franchise record for 21 wins in a single month while clinging to a share of first place. They return now trailing the Astros in the standings, while the Blue Jays have pulled ahead for the second AL Wild Card spot. A saving grace is that Texas continues to tumble, but the Rangers are still in striking distance and play Seattle seven times in the club's final 10 games.

During this 10-game stretch, the Mariners' odds to win the division have dropped from a season-high 44% to 18.9%, though their overall playoff odds remain a healthy 71.9%, per FanGraphs.

“We had a couple of short starts, which then eat into your bullpen a little bit,” manager Scott Servais said. “We had some leads later in games and weren't able to lock down. I talk all the time about how you've got to hit on the road. You also need guys to step up and get the big outs. We weren't able to do that on this trip.”

The path to the regular season’s finish line was always going to be challenging, particularly this weekend against a Rays club that possesses among MLB’s best team-wide power/speed combo coupled with an aggressive approach. 

Tampa Bay jumped on Miller for three runs by his 11th pitch of the game. He held them scoreless in the second, but they made him throw 27 pitches. Then in the third, Miller surrendered a leadoff double to Josh Lowe and a bunt single to speedster Jose Siri, who scored standing from first base in the ensuing at-bat, taking off for a steal attempt just as Luke Raley ripped a down-the-line double. 

Miller rebounded to face the minimum the rest of the way, clearing the fifth inning after 93 pitches. Seattle put together a few productive at-bats to pull within striking distance, but eight of its nine hard-hit balls (exit velocity over 95 mph) went for an out, underscoring some tough luck. But that can be the case when facing a playoff contender that looks every bit the part.

“Weird start,” Miller said. “Two of the hits in the first inning were on sinkers. They haven't seen sinkers [from me] before, so I don't know. It just didn't really go my way.”

The Mariners' pitching staff had a 5.38 ERA, a 1.52 WHIP, 34 walks and 82 strikeouts over 83 2/3 innings on this road trip. They rank second in MLB with 67 quality starts but had just two in this stretch, over which opposing hitters had an .875 OPS against them. 

The Mariners now return home to host the Angels ahead of their penultimate off-day on Thursday, which will be followed by a much-anticipated weekend series against the Dodgers that should present a postseason-type atmosphere at T-Mobile Park -- but with it, the challenge of facing a World Series contender.

They’ll likely do so with the return of Jarred Kelenic, who has played in each of Triple-A Tacoma’s 10 games since beginning his rehab assignment.

Then, they’ll look to wrap their season slate undefeated against Oakland before the well-chronicled 10-game finish against Texas, Houston then Texas again. 

“We’ve got a lot of important games left to play down this stretch,” Crawford said.