Victory Over Oakland Can’t Ease Mariners’ Pain
Without hope, they turned to pride.
In a game rendered meaningless before it was 2 minutes old, the Seattle Mariners pursued victory as if it might ease their disappointment Saturday, and in the end - after they had beaten Oakland in 10 innings, 5-3 - Seattle was left to apply the salve of accomplishment upon the wound of failure.
“We fought obstacles all year to get to this final week,” pitcher Chris Bosio said. “And then we couldn’t win when we needed to. We were our own worst enemy this last week.
“We’ve got a half-dozen guys in this clubhouse who are facing off-season surgery of one kind or another. We lost the best pitcher in baseball. We lost the best hitters in baseball Ken Griffey Jr. and Edgar Martinez - and we took this season to the final two days.”
Even before the game began Saturday, manager Lou Piniella called a quick closed-door meeting with his players and thanked them for their season. Afterward, fighting a sea of emotions, Piniella talked about his now dethroned American League West champions.
“We fell short but we gave it a good fight,” he said. “It was a successful year in many ways. It was a fun team to manage, a fun team for fans to watch. We’re going to do a few things this winter and shore this team up, and next year we’re going to get the job done.”
That 85th victory was another franchise single-season record, and the fact that it wasn’t enough to return the Mariners to the playoffs made finding a balanced perspective on the year difficult.
“We have nothing to be ashamed of,” catcher Dan Wilson said. “We’re all disappointed, but our accomplishment was to overcome so many things and take the season so far. We got close. All things considered - without Randy Johnson the last four months - that was something.”
Two of the newcomers who made the stretch run possible, pitchers Jamie Moyer and Terry Mulholland, said their first impressions didn’t change the longer they were Mariners.
“I thought the first day I got here this was a team with a great nucleus, a team that might be one, two players away from being a dominant team,” Moyer said. “Keep it together, add a little bit - and stay healthy - and this team is ready to win a World Series.”
Mulholland nodded in agreement.
“You’d have to be a fool not to want to pitch for this team, and a bigger fool to want to pitch against it,” he said. “If I don’t come back, I’m going to have to change leagues.”
After losing five of their last six games, the Mariners had no reason to win this one after Baltimore’s 3-2 win over Toronto was posted.
Yet Sterling Hitchcock pitched his best game in weeks. Mark Whiten homered, then doubled home a run. In the 10th inning, Andy Sheets - subbing for the weary Alex Rodriguez - doubled in the go-ahead run.
And in the bottom of the 10th, making his career-high 70th appearance of the year, Norm Charlton saved his 20th game.
“Look around this room and some of the numbers these guys put up is phenomenal,” Charlton said. “Personally, I can’t be happy with my season. But with the offense we’ve got, you add a pitcher or two and keep 22 or 23 of the guys in here, we’re headed for the World Series next year.”
“What we did this season shows the character of this team and the leadership of Lou Piniella,” Hitchcock said. “Everybody in here pushed to the point of exhaustion, mentally and physically. Nobody has much left, but it got us close.”
In his office, sipping a beer, Piniella was willing to look back on the season and ahead to spring.
“The last two Septembers, we’ve given ‘em something to cheer about and our fans have responded,” he said. “We have become an organization to reckon with, and that wasn’t always the case. For all the successes and disappointments, this last week hurt. We had the chance to accomplish something and we finished 2-4.
“I look ahead and I see Randy Johnson healthy again. I see this offense back, I see some moves we can make to improve the club - add a little more speed, a right-handed starting pitcher. We are close and we fell short this year …”