ANAHEIM, Calif. – Late in their 158th game of the season Tuesday, the Seattle Mariners and their fans entered into a few minutes of madness.
With the mathematics of magic numbers dancing in their heads, the Mariners tied the Anaheim Angels in the ninth inning – then saw on the scoreboard that the Athletics had tied up their game with the Rangers in Oakland.
So before Tim Salmon’s 11th inning home run gave Anaheim a 2-1 victory over Seattle, the Mariners and their faithful were faced with nearly incalculable possibilities:
If Seattle won and Oakland lost, the American League West was still up for grabs. If Seattle lost and Oakland lost, the Athletics magic number dropped from two to one.
If Oakland won and Seattle lost, that race was over.
So many ways it could go, and somewhere after 10 p.m. no one knew either outcome. And then the Athletics and Angels won in their last at-bat.
Ah, the high anxiety of a pennant race in late September.
The Seattle Mariners would have loved another five days of it. Now they have only the wild card to consider, and the chances of winning that are remote.
“I can’t lie, it’s ain’t looking pretty,” Bret Boone said.
Someone started to go through the possibilities, had Oakland lost …
“They didn’t lose,” Boone said. “We didn’t win. The wild card is still there, but it’s not looking too good. We can’t control it, any more. We can win the last four games and still not make it.”
Dan Wilson was asked if there were some measure of pride in taking the division race to the 158th game, and Wilson shook his head.
“Pride in second place?” he asked. “No. I don’t think so.”
It was as tough a loss, as tough a night, as most Mariners could remember.
Wild card leader Boston was losing in the ninth inning, then rallied to tie and to win in extra innings.
Division leader Oakland trailed in the ninth inning, rallied to tie and then to win in extra innings.
The Mariners rallied to tie and then lost.
This morning, they awaken 1/2games behind Boston with four to play.
“Until we’re mathematically out of it, you focus on the possibilities,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We got four hits tonight, and it’s tough to win with four hits. But these guys battled.”
Freddy Garcia pitched eight marvelous innings and would have lost, 1-0, if Randy Winn hadn’t singled home a run with two outs in the ninth inning.
And in the bottom of the ninth, Garcia might have lost had not Rafael Soriano gotten three outs to get out of a jam created by Garcia and Arthur Rhodes.
And in the 11th inning, a gimpy Edgar Martinez drew a two-out walk and then tried to steal second base.
“I can’t tell you how much I admire him,” Melvin said. “I didn’t want to take him out for a pinch runner. We were already using two or three guys not in the starting lineup. But the only way we were likely to score was on a base hit, so Edgar tried to get into scoring position.
“He was thrown out, but I commend him for it. He was in pain every step of the way, but he tried to steal a base for us … “
Martinez was out, and a half dozen pitches later, Shigetoshi Hasegawa gave up Salmon’s 19th home run.
The Angels first run came in the second inning, when Garcia walked Salmon, gave up a single to Scott Spiezio and hit Adam Kennedy with a fastball to load the bases.
The Garcia who’s bloated earned run average has confused the Mariners for two years now might have imploded there, giving up a half dozen runs.
Instead, with veteran catcher Pat Borders calling the pitches, Garcia got a double play from Shawn Wooten that allowed one run to score, then retired Wilson Delgado.
Angels 1, Mariners 0.
It was early. But as it got later, that score didn’t change
If Garcia was magnificent, so was journeyman Scot Shields, who had spent most of the season in the Anaheim bullpen. As has happened so often this year against the lesser lights of major league pitching, the Seattle offense couldn’t touch Shields.
Five times in the eight innings Shields retired the Mariners in order.
“We never got anything going,” Boone said.
When Ichiro Suzuki and Boone drew first inning walks, Seattle had the chance to jump ahead, but Kennedy ended that with a marvelous sprawling stop of a Martinez grounder up the middle.
What might have been an RBI single became an inning-ending double play.
In the fifth inning, Seattle threatened again. A one-out double by Randy Winn, then Mike Cameron’s single. Again, it amounted to nothing when right fielder Jeff DaVannon made a sliding catch to steal a single from Rey Sanchez and Pat Borders grounded out.
Into the ninth inning it went, and into the ninth inning came closer Troy Percival and his high-octane fastball. One out, pinch-runner Luis Ugueto stole second base. John Olerud worked Percival for a walk. With two outs, Winn
singled up the middle and Seattle had a run and a tie.
“We knew what we needed to do here, win three games,” Wilson said. “We didn’t get it done.”
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