 The game was necessary after both teams finished the strike-shortened 144-game season with identical records of Scoreless until the fifth inning, Seattle held a slim 1–0 lead at the seventh-inning stretch.The Mariners then broke it open and won to secure the franchise's first postseason It was counted as the 145th regular season game for both teams, with all the events in the game added to regular season statistics.On August 3, the Angels were , 11 games ahead of the second place Texas Rangers, and 13 ahead of the third-place Mariners, at .