Ken Griffey Jr. Turns on the Afterburners; M's Could Still Capture 2nd Place

The Mariners have secured the 12th winning season in franchise history thanks to three-run homers on consecutive nights by Ken Griffey Jr. Both homers were no-doubters that had Griffey adopting his familiar slow walk toward first base. Here's video of Tuesday's and video of Wednesday's.

Griffey now has 18 homers for the year--and if he's wanting to leave a positive impression in his bosses' minds when they draw up 2010 contracts, he's picked the right time to get hot.

Statswise, Griffey hasn't made the case. His .408 slugging percentage places him 11th among AL DHs (didja ever think you'd see the day that Carlos Guillen outslugged Griffey?).

Personality-wise, he has. Last year's Mariners' clubhouse was full of backbiting whiners, this year Griffey has helped turn the "office" into a joyous ticklefest.

And 100-loss Mariners of last season now have an outside chance of capturing second place in the AL West. They are three games behind Texas with four to play--three of them against the Rangers.

Our brain says that the Mariners' defense is behind the turnaround. We've seen it all season, especially in the outfield where Franklin Gutierrez, Ichiro and a revolving door of speedy leftfielders have made triples die. The M's have the best defense of the decade, according to Dave Cameron of USS Mariner and FanGraphs.

Our heart would like to ascribe the turnaround to the clubhouse presence of Griffey and Mike Sweeney, whose earnest, hokey creation of "L. Ben Show" the bench show to bring together the team's backups is our favorite off-field wackiness of the year.

Our brain is winning. We expect Sunday will be Griffey's final game in a Mariner uniform, so childhood friend David and I will be there cheering him on and hoping beyond hope for one more home run.