Two weeks into the season, the bats of the Seattle Mariners possess a little more sizzle than in years past.

It’s been 12 years since the Mariners played a meaningful game in October, and it is going to take a lot more than a sample size of just 10 games to lure fans out of the apathetic purgatory they’ve been in the last few years.

So far, we’ve seen an unsustainable pitching rotation hold down the fort while the team waits on phenoms Hisashi Iwakuma, Taijuan Walker and James Paxton to return from the disabled list. We’ve also seen clutch hitting make up for a subpar defense.

But for this team to be in contention for a playoff spot come September, their hopes rest on one man’s bat, and that man is Justin Smoak.

That’s right. If the Mariners are in the playoff race at the end of the season, it will be because Justin Smoak is the team’s MVP. Not Robinson Cano, not Kyle Seager, Brad Miller or Dustin Ackley, but Justin Smoak.

The man with a .227 career batting average who’s never hit more than 55 RBIs in a season is the key. Do you like their chances? I do, and for a variety of reasons.

First of all, Mariners manager Lloyd McClendon boldly inserted Smoak as the team’s cleanup hitter to start the year. This means he will be hitting behind Robinson Cano, the only sure thing in the Mariners’ offense.

Opposing teams are not going to give Cano anything to hit. We’ve seen this already just two weeks into the season. This means Cano will draw a ton of walks and be on base often. It is almost a foregone conclusion that Cano will lead the team in batting average, as well as on base percentage.

With Cano on base, teams are going to be forced to pitch to Smoak, and not allow him to reach base. He will see more fastballs than he ever has in his career in counts that will often be favorable. Most pitchers throw Smoak a lot of inside breaking balls. This is still going to happen, but last year he proved he can get ahead in counts and draw a walk. If Cano is already on base, pitchers cannot allow this to happen, and therefore Smoak will see a lot of good pitches to hit.

This is what happened in Anaheim, Calif., and Smoak proved he can hit those pitches in the gap or over the fence.

Then there is the fact that Smoak has consistently increased his home run totals and wins above replacement stats since joining the big leagues. The improvement has been slow and inconsistent, and led many fans to lose faith he’ll ever be a big producer in a lineup.

Nonetheless, the improvement is still there. Coupled with Cano’s veteran leadership, there is reason to believe Smoak will continue to improve.

In the first six games this year, Smoak hit .292 with two homeruns and eight RBIs. The Mariners went 4-2 in those games. In the previous five, he hit just .117 with no homeruns and one RBI. In that span, the Mariners were 2-3.

Plain and simple, Smoak needs to make fire if the Mariners are to have any shot at the post season.