By Kirby Arnold
Herald Writer
CLEVELAND – Two days ago, no team looked worse than the Seattle Mariners.
Today, no team seems in better position to move on in the postseason.
The Mariners, losers by a 15-run margin on Saturday, beat the Cleveland Indians 6-2 Sunday at Jacobs Field. The M’s not only avoided elimination in the best-of-five American League Division Series, they stole back the momentum.
The series is tied at two victories apiece, but the Mariners hope they have a silver bullet in left-hander Jamie Moyer, who will pitch in today’s deciding Game 5 at Safeco Field.
Moyer is 3-0 this year against the Indians, including an impressive 5-1 victory in Game 2 on Thursday at Seattle. Chuck Finley, who allowed four runs in the first inning of that game, will pitch for the Indians.
The winning team will advance to the American League Championship Series against the winner of the Oakland-New York Yankees division series. That series also is tied 2-2 with the deciding game tonight in New York.
If the Mariners win today, they will play the first two games of the ALCS on Wednesday and Thursday at Safeco Field.
First, however, they must successfully finish the Cleveland series.
“I think the momentum has really changed,” catcher Dan Wilson said. “We’ll have our crowd, and we’ll have a guy going for us who’s had good success against that club. It will be a lot like they had, but we were able to turn the tables.”
The Mariners, who had struggled offensively throughout the series, scored all their runs Sunday in their last three innings, three in the seventh inning to wipe out a 1-0 Indians lead, one in the eighth and two in the ninth when Edgar Martinez crushed a two-run home run.
The victory gave the Mariners a 6-3 franchise record in playoff games in which they faced elimination.
“Most importantly, we swung the bats better than we have the whole series,” center fielder Mike Cameron said. “We couldn’t play any worse than what we did (Saturday). But when we swing the bats well, there aren’t too many teams that are going to beat us.”
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