After sweep by Oakland, playoff questions are arising
By Larry LaRue
The News Tribune
OAKLAND, Calif. — Sounding a bit like Douglas MacArthur, manager Lou Piniella surveyed the wreckage of a lost weekend in California and summed it up in three words:
"We’ll be back."
In part, he meant Oakland. In part, he meant to the kind of team the Seattle Mariners had been all season — until the night they clinched the American League West.
That was four games ago and, after Sunday’s 7-5 loss to the Athletics, four defeats back.
"How was my weekend?" asked Bret Boone, repeating a question. "It was boring."
Three games, three one-sided losses.
By virtue of their sweeping Seattle, the Athletics clinched a wild card berth in the postseason.
"After the way we started, this means everything," Jason Giambi said.
After the way the Mariners started, it meant nothing. Seattle won 106 games and wrapped up the division title on Wednesday when they put the A’s 17 games back with 16 to play.
Now there are 12 games left, and the Mariners still have 106 victories.
Freddy Garcia was pitching for his 18th on Sunday and had a mild disagreement with plate umpire Larry Barnes. The result? Pitches Garcia thought were first-inning strikes were first-inning balls — and Garcia walked Jeremy and Jason Giambi.
The next batter, Jermaine Dye, then hit one out, and Garcia and his teammates were down 3-0 on one hit.
It was the way the game went for Garcia, who allowed four hits in six innings — but three home runs.
"I told Freddy to let me worry about the umpires," Piniella said. "After the first inning, he pitched pretty well."
Which may explain why the Mariners stumbled so badly this weekend. Aside from the solid competition, Seattle seemed always to make the wrong pitch at the worst time — or the third out when a hit might have changed the outcome.
"We came in flat, we didn’t play well all weekend and we got beat up pretty good," Piniella said.
Garcia made mistakes. Late in the game, after the Mariners had rallied to make it 5-4, closer Kazuhiro Sasaki made mistakes.
And in a play that summed up the weekend, Mike Cameron got picked off first base in the eighth inning, making the first out of an inning in which the Mariners nearly caught Oakland.
"I was stealing," Cameron said, "and he made a move to third base and then came over. That move’s never caught me in my life, but it did today. That’s how this series went — I bleeped up.
"Every time we had the chance all weekend, somebody bleeped up. We kind of got a taste of our own medicine this weekend."
The Mariners weren’t happy with themselves and were none too pleased with the Athletics, either.
The first pitch of the game — Mike Mulder’s fastball to Ichiro Suzuki — sailed behind Seattle’s leadoff hitter.
"I asked the umpire later if he thought that was intentional, and he said yes," Piniella said, shaking his head. "I said, ‘Then why didn’t you do something about it?’ We’ve been told all year if umpires think a pitcher throws at a batter intentionally, the pitcher can be ejected."
Mulder wasn’t ejected. Or warned.
Seven innings later, reliever Jeff Tam hit Boone with a pitch, catching him just below the elbow and forcing him out of the game.
"I’m fine," Boone said, "just a bruise."
By the time the Mariners hit an Oakland batter, it was a bit late to be much of a statement: Sasaki drilled No. 9 hitter Frank Menechino with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning, after two runs had scored.
"We’ll see them again in a few days," Cameron said of the Athletics, who play in Seattle next weekend. "We’ll get ourselves back together and see what happens then. They were playing well, playing with a lot of emotion this weekend.
"We weren’t. That’s our fault."
Seattle had 10 hits, nine of them singles.
"We had plenty of hits this weekend, what we didn’t get was a key hit with men in scoring position," Piniella said.
In the end, four days after assuring themselves of a title, the Mariners got to watch the Athletics and 38,628 fans at the Coliseum celebrate. There were cheers in the stands, high fives on the field, big smiles in the Oakland clubhouse.
And while some of the Mariners said they looked forward to a rematch with the Athletics next weekend, Piniella was looking even further into the future. As it stands now, Seattle would play Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs, and the Athletics would play the Yankees.
Should both AL West teams win, the AL Championship Series would be Oakland vs. Seattle — a fact not lost upon the Mariners manager.
"Will we meet again here?" Piniella asked. He cracked a small smile. "We might. We just might."
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