Sports: Indians pound Mariners

Indians pound Mariners

Vizquel has six RBI and Gonzalez, Lofton and Thome homer as Cleveland totals 19 hits.

©Associated Press

CLEVELAND -- No team has had its way with the Mariners this season quite like the Indians.

First, there was the Comeback. Now, it's the Blowout.

Rookie C.C. Sabathia handled postseason pressure like a veteran and Omar Vizquel had six RBI as Cleveland clobbered Seattle 17-2 in Game 3 of the AL playoffs Saturday, moving the Indians one win from the AL Championship Series.

"We don't want to fly back to Seattle for Game 5," Vizquel said. "After a game like this it's going to be hard for them to concentrate."

Juan Gonzalez, Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome homered for the Indians, who led 8-1 after three innings and never stopped pouring it on, finishing with 19 hits and stunning the Mariners for the second time this season.

On Aug. 5, Seattle led 12-0 in the third inning and 14-2 in the seventh before the Indians rallied to win 15-14 in 11 innings, matching baseball's biggest comeback in 76 years.

Now the Mariners will have to make their own comeback.

"We got crushed," outfielder Mike Cameron said. "It was embarrassing."

Cleveland's Bartolo Colon, who shut out Seattle for eight innings in Game 1, gets a chance close out the Mariners today in Game 4. Freddy Garcia, who lost the opener, has to try to save Seattle's season.

"(Today)'s a big game for us," Garcia understated.

The Mariners entered the series as huge favorites after winning an AL record 116 games. But unless they can win today, they'll be remembered more for their postseason failure than any victories.

They can't play much worse than this.

Seattle, which became the first team since the 1954 Indians to lead the league in batting, pitching and fielding, did none of the three very well. The Mariners made three errors, got seven hits and left the Jake shaken.

"It just steamrolled and avalanched right over us," pitcher Paul Abbott said. "We haven't lost like that all year."

They aren't the Mariners for nothing, and the Indians know the team that lost just 46 times during the regular season will be tough to put away.

"We've still got one more game to win," Indians manager Charlie Manuel said. "Do we want to end it? You bet your butt we do. Hopefully, we'll hit like that tomorrow."

After splitting two games in Seattle, the Indians looked like a different club at home, setting team postseason records for runs and hits. They knocked out Aaron Sele in just two innings, led 8-1 after three, scored five runs in the eighth and had 45,069 towel-waving fans on their feet for much of the game.

Vizquel had four hits and set a team postseason record for RBI. Cleveland's 1-4 hitters, who came in a batting a collective .147 (5-for-34) in the series, were 6-for-9 in the first three innings with six RBI.

The four -- Lofton, Vizquel, Roberto Alomar and Gonzalez -- finished 11-for-18 with 13 RBI.

"We've been in the playoffs and World Series," said Vizquel, trying to make up for a subpar regular season. "We know what it takes to win."

The 15-run margin of victory tied for the second largest in playoff history since the format changed in 1969, behind Boston's 23-7 win against Cleveland in Game 4 of the 1999 playoffs.

The Indians had Seattle's bullpen busy in the first as they took a 2-1 lead off Sele, who lasted just two innings and is 0-4 in five career postseason starts.

The 21-year-old Sabathia, who went 17-5 this year as the league's best rookie not named Ichiro Suzuki, didn't face Seattle this season and spent the past few days reviewing film and reading scouting reports on the Mariners.

With his mother, Margie, nervously watching from the stands, Sabathia settled down after a shaky first inning. He allowed two runs and six hits in six-plus innings, walked five and struck out five -- three coming against Bret Boone, the AL's RBI champion.

"You sure can't tell he's a 21-year-old kid," Thome said. "He doesn't act his age. He's been special for us all season."

On Friday, Sabathia said his mom was more nervous than he was, but that he expected some "jitters" when he took the mound.

"It was a totally different feeling," Sabathia said. "I was excited. I was nervous all in one."

Asked to describe the feeling, Sabathia said: "The closest thing is when I was a little kid and my mom would take me to Toys R Us when you can pick out anything you want. I was like a little kid in a candy store. It was awesome."

One veteran Mariner hitter was impressed.

"He did not look real nervous," first baseman John Olerud said of Sabathia. "We got a quick run and had the bases loaded. He's in a jam but he made good pitches to get out of it."