THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Mariners are laughing their way past the naysayers

Longtime Mariners fans just shook their heads.

Having a laugh, ready to brace themselves for whatever was coming.

“We’ve got Emerson Hancock out there, it’s 10-3 and the guys are going back to Seattle,” the diehards were saying.

“And we’re leading, two games to none.”

Surely, the long-sufferers are ready to let loose with a celebration that you’d hear atop Mt. Rainier.

Dispatch the Blue Jays twice more, punch that ticket for a first-ever World Series, and “Members of the Moose” will go absolutely nuts.

Right?

Hah.

“Don’t kid yourself, sonny,” they’re saying. “The Mariners will find a way to break your heart.”

OK, I get it.

I’ve only been here a decade but, frankly, the Mariners have been improving most of that time.

They were close after Cal Raleigh’s homer got them into the playoffs in ’22, and you KNEW more excitement was coming.

The farm system is baseball’s best (or close to it), they’ve promoted the young players front and center — or traded them for talented vets to fill a few holes.

Why wouldn’t this team be ready for the World Series?

“Oh, kid, you haven’t been around long enough to understand,” say the graybeards.

“What, are you thinking Jorge Polanco is the ghost of Ty Cobb?”

WELL, NO.

It’s tough to see anyone on the current roster matching Cobb’s .419 average in 1911.

Or hitting over .300 for 22 consecutive seasons.

I guess this year’s Mariners will have to settle for having the next Joe DiMaggio in the outfield.

Yes, yes, I’m kidding.

Seriously, though, these Mariners don’t need the spirits from any other eras to win right now.

They’re awfully damn good, as the Tigers and now the Blue Jays will tell you without being prompted.

The two trades with Arizona — fetching Josh Naylor and bringing home Eugenio Suarez — filled the two most glaring holes in the lineup.

That, and piecing together a lights-out bullpen, have made the M’s as good as anyone in MLB.

Living off pitching and home runs is going out of style these days, but the Mariners make that work really, really well.

You simply cannot make mistakes against this Seattle bunch.

A couple walks, and … BOOM!

You’re in trouble.

Toronto manager John Schneider feared Raleigh to the point that he was willing to walk the Dumper and try Polanco — who’s been hotter than Vesuvius in mid-eruption.

The Jays suffered another three-run homer for their trouble.

Look, Seattle’s starters are good enough to hold a lead through six or seven innings, and the top four bullpen studs are almost a cinch to close up shop.

It’s baseball as preached by Earl Weaver, once the lord of Baltimore.

“Great pitching and three-run jacks,” Weaver said, over and over.

WEAVER’S mantra is slipping out of date, in part because MLB itself wants its game to speed up.

There’s no law that says it can’t work for certain teams, however, and one of them will be welcoming chaos to T-Mobile Park on Wednesday night.

The place will go seriously nuts.

The pressure of reaching the World Series is crazy, in any case, as Toronto rookie starter Trey Yesavage discovered on Monday.

The kid was super cool last week while keeping the Yankees hitless through five innings, but it was a different situation against the Mariners.

This time, the Jays were down by a game and the heat was on.

Yesavage was all over the place in the first inning, doling out two walks and then watching Julio Rodriguez launch a screamer into the left-field seats to start things off at 3-0.

Until further notice, the pressure remains on the Blue Jays, who are almost out of squirming room.

Starting a seven-game series by losing the first two at home is not exactly recommended by most math wizards.

Of the 28 teams that have been stuck in that hole, only three have come back to win.

That’s a less-than-healthy 11 percent.

So, yep, the Jays are still alive, and some Mariner diehards will be sweating until they see their guys lined up for introductions at the World Series.

Unless you believe in curses, though, here’s the difference that matters.

The Mariners have a lead, which is nice.

They also have a better team, which is the killer.

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Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press three times each week, normally Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

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