THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: How the train went off the tracks for the M's at the end

What can you say?

Oh, I don’t know.

Maybe scream like you just had your spleen removed without anesthetic.

For revved-up, ready-to-rock Mariners fans, this was pure, hideous pain.

Even worse, it never felt like it might happen.

Right up until Robbie Ray threw perhaps the worst pitch of his career — a thigh-high, two-seam fastball right over the center of the plate — and Yordan Alvarez hit it halfway to the Gulf of Mexico …

The Mariners owned this first game of the AL Division Series.

They battered Justin Verlander, the best pitcher in the game, for six runs on 10 hits over four innings.

They got home runs from J.P. Crawford and Eugenio Suarez.

Julio Rodriguez doubled, tripled and scored three runs — and just missed another extra base hit on a great catch by right fielder Kyle Tucker.

Seattle led 7-3 in the eighth inning, with Andres Munoz and Paul Sewald lined up to finish what Logan Gilbert, Matt Brash and Diego Castillo had done so, so well.

Look, the Astros can hit, they can score, they won 106 games because they can come out of the weeds and smash you.

But THIS?

NO, YOU couldn’t see this train coming.

Except …

For some reason, Munoz couldn’t command his normally deadly slider in the eighth, and Alex Bregman whacked a two-run homer off a poor breaking pitch to cut Seattle’s lead to 7-5.

Deep breath.

Sewald came on for the ninth and got a routine out.

Then in a brief spasm of lost control, he hit David Hensley to bring Minute Maid Park to a boil.

But, no problem.

Yet.

Sewald struck out Jose Altuve on a high fastball, and they needed one more tiny, precious out.

It never came.

Jeremy Pena poked an 0-2 slider off the plate into center for a hit, putting two on for Alvarez — who is among the most dangerous hitters in the sport.

And that brings us to Scott Servais.

The manager has pushed just about every right button this season, but this time he reached into the dynamite drawer.

Ray was last seen getting tattooed by the Blue Jays, he’s made just six relief appearances in his career and has never recorded a save.

Yet Servais asked him for one.

To be fair, this wasn’t a complete shock.

Alvarez against Sewald was no cinch, either, with the big lefty entirely capable of lifting one of Paul’s soft sliders against (or over) the left-field wall.

Perhaps if Sewald had displayed his usual command, Servais wouldn’t have gambled with Ray.

But there was the temptation of left-on-left, perhaps with the idea that Ray’s slider would get that final out.

As we know, they never got past a fastball that screamed: “Hit me hard and far.”

SERVAIS manned up after the heartbreak, and told the media that he and the staff had prepared for that very matchup.

Ray against Alvarez.

Yes, despite the fact that the Astros had murdered Ray in three starts this year, tagging him with an ERA of 10.97.

"We talked about it coming into the series,” Servais said. We talked about it pregame today.

“I looked at it in the seventh inning and said, ‘Hey, this could happen.’

“So that was the plan going in. End of the day, you have a plan, we still got to execute it."

Clearly, Ray couldn’t do it.

Alvarez fouled off the first pitch, and then …

BOOM!

What’s curious about how this gut-clenching game turned out is why Ray didn’t go after Alvarez with his power sliders.

Why let a guy who hit .306 with 37 homers have your second-best pitch?

“I was just trying to get the sinker in on him,” Ray said. “It just didn’t get there.”

Now, obviously ...

Ray didn't intend to throw the damn thing where he did, since a lesser hitter than Alvarez could have pounded that particular pitch.

Still.

Strange.

The result was sickening for everyone in the Mariners’ orbit, no question.

Ironically, Seattle got a taste of how fans in Toronto felt when the Jays blew an 8-1 lead and lost 10-9.

Hideous as this was, the Mariners have proved all season that they are an incredibly resilient team — so the series isn’t over.

It just FEELS like it.

If Luis Castillo can repeat his performance in Toronto on Thursday, perhaps the Mariners can get home with the thing tied at a game apiece.

It’s just that, having knocked around Verlander and basically clutching this game in their hands — with the dream of heading to Seattle up 2-0 …

Yeah, it sucks.

It really sucks.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”