SEATTLE — Their unique bond never wavered despite different personalities featuring combative personalties straight out of the movies. .

Former roommates in the minor leagues and later in the big leagues, their conflicting and often critical stories about that shared living experience offer reminders of Felix Unger and Oscar Madison.

And the good-natured banter between the two of them — a mix of criticism, cajoling and commentary at each other’s expense — is straight out of the movie “Stepbrothers.”

But in the final game of their 2024 season, Logan Gilbert, the most consistent performer in MLB’s top starting rotation, and Cal Raleigh, the best slugging and also defensive catcher in baseball, offered final reminders as to why they were the Mariners’ best pitcher and best position player this season, respectively, while offering a glimmer of a hope of better seasons ahead.

Gilbert retired the first 17 batters he faced before losing his bid for a perfect game in the top of the sixth and Raleigh smashed a two-run homer to add his record-setting season totals in the Mariners’ 6-4 win over the team that will no longer be called the Oakland Athletics at T-Mobile Park on Sunday.

Seattle completed a weekend sweep of Oakland to finish the season with an 85-77 record.

“These guys have grinded, no doubt about it,” manager Dan Wilson said. “They have been from beginning to end. They have a lot of fight in them. It’s a chance now to put this one behind them, put this year behind them, get a little rest. Then you start to think about what’s ahead. Spring training is going to be here before we know it.”

The Mariners will be watching the postseason from home for a second straight season. And neither Gilbert nor Raleigh, two of the fiercest competitors, will take solace in their individual numbers over that team failure.

“It’s bittersweet,” Raleigh said. “I really love the fans here. They’ve really taken me in. They’re awesome. They come out and support us even during the bad times. It’s a great fan base. You just feel bad you couldn’t get it done. It’s always sad ending the year like that.”

The Mariners set it up weeks ago to have Gilbert start on the final day of the regular season, wanting him on the mound if the game could get them into the postseason. And when the game didn’t mean anything, Gilbert still wanted to start.

“Fans show up every day, good or bad, however things are going, you can feel how much they care about it,” he said. “You can feel how much they want to go all the way to the end of October. I wish it lined up that way.”

How long will this duo be together? Well, that is yet to be determined. Gilbert is heading into his second year of arbitration eligibility and Raleigh will enter his first. Both will get major salary raises and will be free agents after the 2027 season — and neither has heard a viable offer for an extension from the Mariners.

In a season filled with great pitching performances from the best rotation in baseball and possibly franchise history, Gilbert looked like he might put together the best one in his career-high 33rd and final outing.

With a lively fastball that included two clocked at 100 mph, the fastest in his career, he carved up an A’s lineup that was without Lawrence Butler and Shea Langeliers. He struck out four of the first six batters he faced and didn’t allow anything in the way of hard contact.

“I felt good,” he said. “I know I get a lot of time off, so I was just going to leave it all out there. I felt like I at least owed that to the fans. And I know I’m going to be wishing on a random day in December or January, that I was at T-Mobile pitching again.”

His teammates didn’t provide much early offense, going hitless through the first 11 batters.

But Raleigh led off the fourth inning with a single, Randy Arozarena settled for a double after his deep drive to left center bounced off the top of the wall and back into play. Justin Turner, a free agent after the season, then made another on-field pitch to be brought back for next season, doubling to left-center for a 2-0 lead.

While the Mariners weren’t expecting to push Gilbert far in his outing, knowing he’d made more starts and logged more innings than anyone on the team, they also couldn’t remove him from the game when he had a bid for the first perfect game in the organization since Felix Hernandez’s perfect game on Aug. 15, 2012. He cruised through the fifth with ease, throwing just nine pitches.

“We were trying to monitor it closely, but things took a different turn for a little bit there,” Wilson said.

The Mariners broke open the game in the bottom of the inning. J.P. Crawford led off with a single and scored on Victor Robles’ one-out double into the left-field corner. Julio Rodriguez followed with a crisp RBI single to right field. But it was Raleigh who had the most memorable moment of the inning.

He sat on a 2-2 curveball from Mitch Spence, unleashing that trademark swing with the high follow through and sending a line drive into the right-field seats for a two-run homer.

It was his 34th homer of the season and gave him 100 RBI.

“My phone’s been blowing up the past few days, ‘You get to 100.'” Raleigh said. “I’d obviously trade it in a heartbeat for a spot the playoffs. But that will be a cool little feat to look back on one day, and it was definitely special.”

Raleigh has had plenty of cool little feats this season.

Since making his MLB debut during the 2021 season, Raleigh has hit 93 homers, surpassing Mike Piazza for the most home runs by a catcher in his first four seasons. What’s stunning is that Raleigh only hit two homers in 47 games played in 2021. The other 91 have come over the past three seasons with 27 in 2022, 30 in 2023 and 34 this season. It’s almost the most homers by a Mariners player in their first four MLB seasons, tying the record held by Alvin Davis.

Raleigh led the Mariners with 153 games played this season, which is preposterous for a player whose primary position is catcher. Sunday was his 125 th game started at catcher this season — the most in MLB. He appeared in 134 games at catcher and logged 1,122 innings behind the plate — also the most in MLB.

“Can’t say enough about what he does for this team,” Gilbert said. “I know we kind of talked about it throughout the year at different times, but we’re not the same team without him. I think everybody knows that.”

Gilbert’s bid for perfection ended with two outs in the top of the sixth when Nick Allen was able to pull a 1-2 curveball that hung in the middle of the plate. With no chance of history, Wilson was out of the dugout immediately, replacing Gilbert with Eduard Bazardo.

The announced crowd of 42,177 stood for a lengthy ovation.

“I probably couldn’t actually put into words what it means,” Gilbert said. “It was pretty overwhelming, honestly. That’s the kind of moment that I wish I could just hit pause on and take it in for a while, because it goes so quick and means so much. You feel how much they care. You feel how much these fans support me and everybody else. I’m trying to lay it all on the line for the team and for the fans, so it’s nice that you know they show their appreciation, and hopefully they know how much I appreciate it, too.”

Gilbert’s final line: 6 2/3 scoreless innings pitched, one hit allowed with no walks and seven strikeouts. It was his 23rd quality start of the season, which was the most in the American League. He improved to 9-12 on the season while lowering his ERA to 3.23. He finished the season with 208 2/3 innings pitched, the most in MLB with 220 strikeouts and 37 walks.

The last Mariner pitcher to throw 200 innings and strike out more than 200 batters was Hernandez in 2014. Zach Wheeler of the Phillies was the only other pitcher to accomplish that feat this season (200 inning pitched, 224 strikeouts).

“It means a lot,” Gilbert said. “That’s something I always value. I know the game is kind of trending a little bit different, but I looked up to guys that go deep in games. My favorite pitcher is Nolan Ryan. He threw nine innings, probably every single time he was out there. So it means a lot that I could do that.”

The Mariners bullpen gave up four runs after Gilbert’s exit, but rookie Troy Taylor was able to close out the final game of the season with the tying run at the plate in the ninth.

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