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Seattle's big seventh forces decisive game

The Mariners rally for three runs to defeat the Indians 6-2 and set up today's Game 5.

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 15, 2001

CLEVELAND -- Nine outs from having all those wins and records overshadowed by failure, Seattle didn't let its special season end.

It didn't panic. Instead, it did whatever it took.

And won again.

Ichiro Suzuki provided the key hit, and the Mariners staved off an early postseason exit Sunday, rallying for a 6-2 win over Cleveland to force Game 5 today in Seattle.

"There was no tension," outfielder Mike Cameron said. "It was just a matter of swinging the bats and waiting for that one break."

Just when it looked as if the Mariners would tie the 1906 Chicago Cubs again, Suzuki delivered a go-ahead single, and baseball's best team this season got the biggest of its 118 wins.

Suzuki's hit highlighted a three-run seventh inning as Seattle, which won 116 games during the regular season, avoided the same fate as the 1906 Cubs, the team whose wins record the Mariners matched. Chicago did not win the World Series.

The Mariners came back against Bartolo Colon, who shut them out for eight innings in Game 1 and blanked them for the first six Sunday after a rain delay of more than two hours.

"We battled back from adversity all season," Mariners manager Lou Piniella said. "We weren't going to lose because of the pressure. We were going to lose because the other team outplayed us."

Suzuki went 3-for-5 and Edgar Martinez hit a two-run homer in the ninth for the Mariners, who were blown out 17-2 in Game 3 on Saturday.

"We got our butts kicked," second baseman Bret Boone said. "But remember, I said this team is ready."

Freddy Garcia pitched 61/3 innings for the win.

Jamie Moyer, who beat Cleveland in Game 2 and went 2-0 against it in the regular season, starts Game 5 for the Mariners at 4 p.m. at Safeco Field against Chuck Finley.

"I'm elated about getting to pitch in a fifth game," said Finley, who waited 15 years to make his first postseason start in Game 2 and gave up two two-run homers in the first. "I started thinking about that after Game 2. I had the feeling we might be back in Seattle anyway."

Juan Gonzalez's second-inning homer looked as if it might stand up as Colon handled the Mariners with ease for six innings.

But he walked John Olerud to open the seventh, and Stan Javier threw his bat at an outside pitch and singled to left.

The Indians tried to pick Olerud off second, but Colon's wild throw allowed the Mariners to finally get a runner to third. Cameron walked to load the bases, and pinch-hitter Al Martin grounded into a force at the plate.

David Bell followed with a fly ball down the leftfield line that Marty Cordova ran down in foul territory, but it was deep enough to score Javier without a play to tie it at 1.

Indians manager Charlie Manuel had left-hander Ricardo Rincon ready to face Suzuki, but he stuck with Colon. And Suzuki singled, his 250th hit in 2001, through the hole in right to score Cameron and give Seattle a 2-1 lead.

Mark McLemore followed with a run-scoring single, chasing Colon, who had set a division series record with 14 consecutive scoreless innings.

"There was a little sigh of relief with each at-bat," Jay Buhner said. "We got a walk. The error. A sac fly. A hit. Each one was bigger and bigger, and then we just knew."

The Indians got a run back in the bottom half off Garcia. Gonzalez opened with a wind-blown double over Cameron's head in center and went to third on a groundout.

Jeff Nelson came on and struck out Ellis Burks on a pitch that got past catcher Tom Lampkin, allowing Burks to reach.

Travis Fryman's grounder off Nelson's glove scored Gonzalez but forced Burks at second. When Manuel sent up lefty slugger Russell Branyan to hit for Cordova, Piniella countered with hard-throwing lefty Arthur Rhodes.

Manuel sent up right-hander Wil Cordero, who just missed hitting a go-ahead homer by flying to the warning track in left.

Seattle got an insurance run in the eighth on Cameron's double. With Suzuki on again in the ninth, Martinez hit a 458-foot homer off Paul Shuey.

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