Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, October 9, 1995 TAG: 9510090104
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Medium
The tumultuous American League division series between the Seattle Mariners and the New York Yankees couldn't end that way.
Naturally, this would become just the fifth postseason series in baseball history to go to a final game and then have it decided in extra innings.
It ended Sunday night with Seattle rocking and New York reeling.
It ended with both Randy Johnson and Jack McDowell pitching out of the bullpen.
It ended with Edgar Martinez's two-run double in the bottom of the 11th inning to give the Mariners a 6-5 victory after the Yankees had taken a 5-4 lead earlier in the top of the inning on Randy Velarde's single.
Ken Griffey Jr., who had a playoff-record fifth home run in the eighth inning, slid across the plate to score from first with the game-winner.
Joey Cora opened the inning with a bunt single, barely eluding first baseman Don Mattingly's tag, and took third on Griffey's single. Martinez, who drove in a postseason-record seven runs in Game 4's win, followed with a drive down the left-field line.
Griffey easily beat the relay to the plate, and was mobbed by his teammates. The 57,411 fans at the Kingdome, some of them wearing ``Refuse To Lose'' shirts, roared.
This wasn't supposed to happen again.
But all of the games between New York and Seattle in this series had more drama than a Carrington wedding, so why should this one be any different?
With the score tied at 2 in the sixth, Mattingly, the long-suffering Yankee first baseman, appeared to give New York control when he lashed a bases-loaded double off starter Andy Benes to make it a 4-2 game.
David Cone, the New York starter, battled into the eighth inning before Seattle came back to tie the score again. Griffey Jr. began the comeback with a towering home run into the upper stands of right field.
After Cone worked a second out, he walked Tino Martinez, gave up a hit to Jay Buhner, then walked pinch hitter Warren Newson to load the bases. Buck Showalter, the New York manager, came out to talk to Cone, but stayed with him.
The veteran worked a full count, but spun a breaking ball into the dirt against pinch hitter Doug Strange, and the score was tied again. Cone turned, dropped his head and put his hands on his knees in disgust.
Reliever Mariano Rivera came in to end the eighth, but the drama was just beginning.
In the top of the ninth of this no-tomorrow showdown, Seattle reliever Norm Charlton gave up a leadoff double to Tony Fernandez and then a walk to Randy Velarde.
It might have seemed a weird time for the Kingdome to erupt into its loudest cheer of the night, but it did. That's because a certain 6-foot-10 left-hander, who had been warming up for an inning in the bullpen, was called into the game.
Randy Johnson, who will probably win the Cy Young Award this season, had been the winner in a gutty effort in Game 3, working on three days' rest. And this was just two days later.
But manager Lou Piniella saw an inning, maybe two from Johnson, as a last-ditch chance to save a season. That's what Seattle faced with nobody out and two on in the top of the ninth and Wade Boggs, Bernie Williams and Paul O'Neill coming to the plate.
Johnson's first pitch nearly knocked the bat out of the hands of Boggs, who had squared to bunt, and the ball rifled foul. Boggs struck out, Williams popped up to second and O'Neill fouled out to the catcher.
Johnson left the mound without a show of emotion or a gesture, like the baddest gunfighter of them all. The Boggs strikeout had registered 96 miles per hour on the radar gun.
Then, in the bottom of the ninth, New York had its own version of that. Vince Coleman opened the inning with a single against Rivera. After Joey Cora bunted the runner over, Griffey was intentionally walked.
Showalter went to the mound and called for McDowell, who had pitched against Johnson just two nights before. McDowell responded as well, striking out slugger Edgar Martinez and getting Alex Rodriguez on a grounder to end the inning.
So it was extra innings, and a very long time since Cora had started the scoring with a Seattle home run in the third inning off Cone, just his eighth home run in 2,066 career at-bats. And a very long time since O'Neill had put New York ahead, 2-1, with a home run of his own off starter Benes.
Seattle had then tied the score on a double by Tino Martinez and a single by Buhner in the bottom of the fourth, but Mattingly's two-run double in the sixth made it a 4-2 game.
by CNB