Today
Opponent: Cincinnati Reds
When: 1:10 p.m.
Where: Safeco Field
TV: FSN
Radio: ESPN 710 AM
Pitchers: Seattle left-hander Ryan Rowland-Smith (0-6, 6.63 earned run average) vs. right-hander Aaron Harang (5-6, 5.44.)
Those were the days
You don’t work 17 years for an organization without some special feelings, especially when one of those was the most successful regular season by a team in major league history.
Former Mariners pitching coach Bryan Price, in his first year as the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching coach, had a lot of memories come flooding back this weekend during the Reds’ interleague series at Safeco Field. Unquestionably, the best was the 2001 season when the Mariners tied the major league regular-season record with 116 victories.
“You hope you never forget it,” Price said.
To put that year in perspective, Price compares the feeling in 2001 it with the positive vibes he has with a Reds team that has been one of the surprises in the National League. They came into the weekend leading the NL Central but had lost 10 of 17 games.
“All teams go through that,” Price said. “Yet that 2001 team here never had that stretch, never had that period where you look back and say, ‘Oh boy, we played 20 games and we’re 7-13. We didn’t lose a series until August that year and we put up ridiculous numbers that go with a 116-game winning season.”
The only downer was that the Mariners went flat at absolutely the worst time — in the postseason. The Indians took them to a deciding fifth game before the Mariners won the first round of the playoffs, then they lost to the Yankees in five games of the best-of-seven AL Championship Series.
“Everybody was disappointed that we didn’t take it all the way to the World Series,” Price said. “It kind of felt like it was unfinished. However, you don’t want to overlook the greatness of that season. It was something anybody associated with it — from the fans, the players, the coaches, writers, everybody — you can’t forget that season.
“To go along with the great players we had, there was the quiet leadership of Edgar Martinez and Dan Wilson and John Olerud. There were some really terrific support players — guys who weren’t everyday players like Stan Javier, Mark McLemore, Tom Lampkin, Al Martin — guys who were impact people who whenever they were asked to come in, they played well. And when they didn’t play, they stayed ready.
“It was a 25-man roster and 25 men contributed. You can’t play any better than that. Those were good days.”
Of note
Through 10 starts this season, Cliff Lee has 67 strikeouts and only four walks, making him one of four pitchers since 1900 (joining Bret Saberhagen in 1994, Greg Maddux in 1995 and Ben Sheets in 2006-06) to do that in 10 starts. None of them, however, did it in their first 10 starts of a season. … Lee leads the major leagues with a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 16.75-to-1. … His complete-game, 1-0 victory Friday was the Mariners’ 23rd interleague shutout, most by a team in interleague history. The Braves had 19 shutouts and the Mets and Red Sox 18 each. … Closer David Aardsma’s status was minute-to-minute Saturday as he and wife Andrea await the birth of their first child. Today is the due date, and Aardsma said he hoped to miss no more than one game if the bay is born during the current homestand.
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