Sele focused on today’s game, not thinking of future

  • Larry Henry / Herald Writer
  • Sunday, October 21, 2001 9:00pm
  • Sports

By Larry Henry

Herald Writer

NEW YORK – For a few moments, Aaron Sele was asked to think about his future.

He didn’t offer much enlightenment.

The pitcher can become a free agent after the season and someone wanted to know if he had given any thought to staying with the Mariners.

“No, I haven’t given it any thought lately,” he said before Game 4 of the American League Championship Series Sunday night. “I’ve been kind of preoccupied.

“You know, yeah, we are from Seattle and we definitely have an interest in (staying in) Seattle, and we’ll see whether Seattle has interest (in me) or not after the season.”

Sele has been preoccupied, of course, with the playoffs, and tonight he makes his second start of the ALCS against the New York Yankees. He hopes the outcome is different than his first start.

In Game 1, Sele didn’t pitch poorly, but he did give up a two-run homer to Paul O’Neill in the fourth and Andy Pettitte made it stand up for a 4-2 Yankee victory. It was Sele’s fifth loss in five career starts in the playoffs.

There was speculation that manager Lou Piniella might go with Joel Pineiro in place of Sele tonight. Piniella squashed that idea quickly.

“No, Pineiro we would not consider,” he said. “This is a time for experienced pitchers. We have confidence in Aaron. He’s pitched well for us all year.

“We’ve got our pitching set up the way we want it, and what we need to do is get this thing back to Seattle. We’ve got (Freddy) Garcia and (Jamie) Moyer set up for games 6 and 7. We are going to stay the way we are.”

Sele is excited to pitch. Yes, Sele, gets a charge when he steps on the mound, not that you would know it. He never allows his emotions to show, whether he’s winning or losing, whether he’s just retired the No. 4 hitter with the bases loaded or the No. 9 hitter with the bases empty.

“Every time I get to pitch,” said the 31-year-old native of Poulsbo. “I’m pretty low-key, even-keeled, but any time you take the ball you get excited.

“It’s fun to pitch in the playoffs. That’s why you work so hard during the season and spring training to get to the playoffs.”

He’s a studious sort, much like teammate and fellow pitcher Moyer. You often see them sitting together in the dugout during a game and you can bet they’re discussing their craft.

Moyer is good at adapting to the game’s circumstances, and Sele has taken notice.

“Each game scenario … changes the way you pitch,” he said, “and even if the scouts have said this or that about a certain situation, that situation might not ever have come up in your game, so a lot of it you just have to kind of be creative and kind of wing it out there.

“I’ve learned a lot from pitching behind Jamie the last two years, because he creates out there quite a bit.”

It’s quite clear that Sele has a good deal of respect for Moyer.

“Even last year when he was hurt, I told a lot of the Seattle media that he was still our leader,” Sele said. “He was in every day, talking to us, watching, he was out there for nine innings on the bench during the game, giving advice if you asked. He’s definitely a leader on this club.”

Lifetime, Sele hasn’t done very well against the Yankees. He’s 5-8 during the regular season, 0-4 in the playoffs.

On the current Yankee team, he points to its obvious strengths: pitching and defense. Nor, he quickly reminds you, is the hitting bad.

“Their hitters are balanced, 1 through 9,” he said. “Good contact guys, good power guys, good gap guys, got some speed guys. It gives (manager) Joe (Torre) a lot of options.”

He could have been talking about his own team, which Pettitte held to three hits through eight innings in Game 1.

Pettitte, however, believes the hitters always have the advantage when they face a pitcher a second time in a short series. “But, again,” he said, “if you are able to make quality pitches, you are usually going to get some guys out.”

Let’s just say he made a number of quality pitches in the opening game.

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