By Rich Myhre
Herald Writer
SEATTLE — After being shut out in Tuesday’s American League Division Series opener, the Seattle Mariners needed an offensive hero in Thursday’s second game.
It took all of eight pitches to find him.
With Ichiro Suzuki at first base after a leadoff walk, Seattle’s Mike Cameron took two quick strikes from Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Chuck Finley. Finley, a veteran, wanted to clip a corner with his next pitch, but instead left the ball belt high and near the middle of the plate.
Cameron swung, sending a soaring drive that cleared the scoreboard in left field for a two-run home run. The blast triggered a four-run outburst, helping lift Seattle to a 5-1 series-tying victory before 48,052 delighted fans at Safeco Field.
Considering the stakes — a loss would have sent the Mariners to Cleveland for Games 3 and 4 of this best-of-five series down 0-2 — it may have been Seattle’s most important swing of the season.
"Cammie’s home run in the first was huge," teammate Bret Boone said. "Being 0-1 in the series, it was pretty darn important that we got off to a start like that. I was on deck and I know it was nice watching it."
Moments later, the margin was 4-0. Boone skipped a single into center field and Edgar Martinez followed with another towering home run, this one to straightaway center field. Four hitters, four runs, and more than enough cushion for Seattle starter Jamie Moyer and a trio of relievers.
"We needed to do that," Boone said. "After losing the first game, to jump on them early today gets everybody fired up. And when Edgar follows with a two-run shot, I can’t say how big that was for us. It gave Jamie some breathing room."
"When you get an early lead, it takes the pressure off of everybody," said Seattle’s John Olerud. "It definitely takes some of the pressure off the hitters. They’re a little more relaxed going up there because there’s not that sense of urgency. So those runs were real important."
Four quick runs "gets your juices flowing more," said Seattle manager Lou Piniella. "At the same time, it gets the crowd into the game and it gets the guys excited."
The first-inning barrage continued a decisive trend for the Mariners this season: They are 88-9 in games when they score first. It also helped jump-start a Seattle offense that was blanked on just six hits in Tuesday’s opener after leading the major leagues in scoring at 5.72 runs per game.
"It was a letdown, I think, for everyone that we got shut out in Game 1," Cameron said.
The surprise was not that Cameron could hit a home run — he hit 25 this season — but that he could do it on an 0-2 pitch. Finley had three pitches to nibble at a corner, and instead put a batting-practice fastball into the inside part of the strike zone.
"He was ahead on the count and made a bad pitch," sighed Cleveland manager Charlie Manuel. "And he paid for it."
No one may have been more surprised than Cameron, who said he "wasn’t really looking for a fastball in. It just happened to run back over the middle of the plate and I was able to get to it."
"That was huge, right out of the gate, to get four runs on the board," Seattle’s Jay Buhner said. "And the way Jamie has been pitching, we were pretty confident that those were four pretty good-sized runs."
Despite their early outburst, the Mariners never overwhelmed Cleveland. They finished with only six hits and scored just once after the first inning, on a David Bell solo homer in the fifth. But their four-run first was enough to avoid a perilous 0-2 deficit as the series moves to Cleveland.
"This was as close to a must-win game as you want it to be," Piniella said.
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