SEATTLE — The familiar chants of SEA … HAWKS!!! could first be heard in the third inning and randomly appeared over the course of Wednesday afternoon’s Mariners game at T-Mobile Park.

It wasn’t surprising considering the crowd of 21,565 featured as many Seahawks jerseys as Mariners jerseys, if not more.

Despite everything working against them, including their own seasonlong inconsistency, the Mariners desperately tried to keep their postseason hopes alive as their Sodo neighbors opened their season hours later, hanging their second championship banner as part of their festivities.

The Mariners have given every reason for local sports fans to move on from them with football season beginning. If only they had played to expectations this season and were in control of the American League West, the two-sport doubleheader would’ve been an epic day of excitement in an underrated sports city.

Instead, the Mariners’ 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers, featuring the best outing of rookie Kade Anderson’s young career, was relegated to an impressive side note to the day.

It’s an unfortunate situation because the talented young left-hander was that good in his fourth start of his MLB career.

Working on a pitch limited of around 85, Anderson pitched six innings, allowing one run on four hits with a walk and five strikeouts to pick up his first MLB win.

After ripping a 95-mph fastball past Jake Burger for a swinging strike three for the final out of the sixth, Anderson received a deserved standing ovation from the crowd.

His fellow starting pitchers were waiting at the top step of the dugout to offer congratulations. He was rewarded with the customary beer shower from his teammates postgame.

“It means a lot just having their support,” Anderson said. “I wouldn’t say the easiest transition by any means. But it makes this feel even better. This is just the beginning of it. This is the standard that I set myself to.”

That standard comes from learning and growing each outing — repeat the positives, learn from the negatives and adjust when needed for improvement.

Over the course of four MLB starts, Anderson has done that. He was a noticeably different pitcher in this outing compared to his debut. There was a difference in Anderson after the third inning in his intent and aggressiveness.

“That in-game adjustment today just felt different for whatever reason,” Anderson said. “I felt like I was back out there pitching again. And it shouldn’t take me this long to get there, but once again, that’s the standard.”

The adjustment wasn’t physical. Though his breaking stuff seemed to have more life and movement to the bottom of the zone, while his fastball had a tick or two of extra velocity. It was a shift in his mentality. He wasn’t going to be passive and try to place pitches. He was going to beat hitters with them.

“It’s more of a mentality of attacking guys,” he said. “I felt like when I made that adjustment, my velocity shot up, just throwing things more aggressively in the zone. It just felt like at some points, I was trying to locate over like throwing something by a dude. That was the biggest game changer.”

His one run allowed came in the second inning when he fell behind Burger. Anderson fired a 93-mph fastball to Burger on a 2-1 count, but the pitch stayed in the middle of the plate. It allowed Burger to drive it over the wall in deep right-center into the J-Rod Squad section for a 1-0 Rangers lead.

The Mariners immediately answered in the bottom half of the second. Cal Raleigh worked a leadoff walk, successfully using the ABS challenge system to overturn a called strike on a 3-2 count. He made a heads-up decision to tag up and advance to second when catcher Elias Diaz made a ridiculous sliding catch going into the backstop on a foul pop.

That extra 90 feet loomed large when Taylor Ward dumped a two-out single into center to score Raleigh and tie the game.

The Mariners took the lead in the fourth inning. With two outs, Josh Naylor singled off the second base bag and Ward worked a walk. Cole Young laced a two-run double off the wall in right field to score both runners to give Anderson a lead.

In the sixth, Anderson gave up a one-out single to Brandon Nimmo. With Seranthony Dominguez warming, Wilson opted to stay with Anderson.

“It was a tight game, so we were pulling for him to get through six (innings) because we really wanted to get him through six, and because that is a big boost of confidence there,” Wilson said. “I thought he looked to me like he was almost getting stronger as the game went on, which is always a good sign.”

Anderson struck out Wyatt Langford looking to bring Burger to the plate. A visit from catcher Cal Raleigh helped inspire a little more confidence before the punch out.

“I won’t say what he said, but it meant a lot,” Anderson said. “He also holds me to that standard as well. That’s why he’s so good. And him holding me to that standard really has helped me continue to adjust to this. I felt like what he said, it just kind of clicked. And that’s the standard I hold myself to now.”

The Mariners got a scoreless seventh from Dominguez. Gabe Speier gave up a solo homer to Corey Seager on, yes, a first pitch. But Andres Muñoz worked around a leadoff walk to pick up his 26th save.

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