I think their greatest chance to be relevant at the trade deadline involves crushing less competitive teams. Even if they split series (or win series) against more competitive teams what happens elsewhere will determine the season. (Meaning if they go roughly .500 against the AL East clubs, but go under .500 against weak opponents while the Birds or the Yanks go over .500. . .they're done.)
And in fact, that's what happened last year. They were the #6 team in the AL at the trade deadline. But even so, they constantly blew games against weaker opponents, while (mostly) hanging tough against more impressive opponents.
By the season's end, the worst teams in the AL (under .500) were: DET, CLE, LAA, CWS, KCR, OAK.
In the NL they were: SFG, PIT, NYM, WAS, STL, CRR.
This is what we did. * for teams that lost 100 games or more.
DET 5-1
CLE 3-3
LAA 3-4
*CHW 2-4
*KCR 5-2
*OAK 4-2
NL SFG 1-2
PIT 0-3
NYM 2-1
WSN 1-2
STL 0-3
*CRR 1-2
That's 27-29 of which it was 12-10 v. 100-loss teams.
I know some teams nose-dive at the end, but even with that sort of noise this is something to consider.
***
Anyway, YMMV, but in this context, splitting the opening Seattle series 2-2 is something of a disappointment to me. We could have easily been 3-1, which would have picked up the marginal win against a solid opponent. If we attribute it to bad luck or whatever. . .that's our ration for this road trip.
(We still need to crush Oakland, since everyone else among the AL competitors will.)