‘It means we’re pretty good’

Asked if those totals were worth any two previous seasons in his career, Boone feigned anger.

“No way,” he said. “The way I’ve played the last few years, this isn’t more than a season and a half.”

Overall, the Mariners banged 16 hits around the Ballpark at Arlington, including home runs by John Olerud (his 19th), Carlos Guillen (No. 5) and – in his first at-bat since Sept. 5 – a pinch-hit home run for Al Martin (No. 7).

“I told you in April they might win 110 games,” shortstop Alex Rodriguez said. “I might have under-estimated them a bit.”

But for all the glossy numbers and clubhouse confidence, Piniella badly wanted this win for one man – Sele.

The veteran right-hander who began the season 8-0 had won just twice since the All-Star break. In games when he didn’t pitch well, he lost. In the games in which he did, he often got no decision.

“I don’t care if you’ve been in the game 20 years, you want to win,” Piniella said. “Aaron has two more starts, and we want to get him a couple more wins and send him into the post-season on a roll.”

If Sele hadn’t been the pitcher he was, say, a year ago, when he went 17-10, Texas manager Jerry Narron didn’t see much difference.

“He’s a good pitcher, a real good pitcher,” Narron said. “He was a good pitcher when he was with us, because he did what good pitchers do – he wins.”

As the Mariners piled up home runs and stolen bases, tying a club record with five steals before the fourth inning was over, Sele checked the Rangers on two runs, one of them unearned.

In a game that was strange by any standard, the Mariners committed four errors and still were never threatened, largely because of Sele’s consistency.

“When that big curve ball of his comes out of his hand, it goes up,” catcher Tom Lampkin said. “Hitters take it a lot of times, and it drops right across the strike zone. He threw it for strikes tonight, never really tried to overthrow it.

“I told him, ‘If we can bottle that, you’re gonna have a great postseason.’”

Though the box score will make this look like many of the first 107 Seattle victories, it wasn’t. Not on the field, anyway. From the outset, it was an odd duck of a ball game.

In the first inning, Boone tapped a ball toward second base and then went tail-over-tea-kettle about halfway down the first base line.

“I have no idea what happened,” Boone said. “I was going to beat that throw out and all of a sudden I’m rolling on the ground.”

Then in the fourth inning, with Olerud at first base, Boone at third and Mike Cameron up on a 3-2 pitch, starter Justin Duchscherer threw one wide and low. Olerud trotted down to second base.

Except plate umpire Bruce Froemming never called “ball four.”

Texas catcher Bill Hasselman stared at him, then fired the ball down to second base, where Olerud was still leisurely heading to the bag. Surprised to see someone covering the bag, Olerud slid and was signaled safe.

The umpires huddled for a moment and mentioned to Froemming that there had been four balls thrown to Cameron, so Cameron was given the walk – and Olerud lost what he thought for a moment was his third stolen base of the season.

Then in the eighth, play was stopped while Mark McLemore pointed a fan in the stands out to Rangers security folk, who didn’t eject the fan but at least made him move further away.