Expectations Weigh On M’S Mental Aspects Made Winning This Title Tougher Than 1995

Sure, Ken Griffey Jr. stood baseball on its head with 55 home runs. Sure, Randy Johnson pitched better than anyone could imagine after back surgery and won 19 games.

But this A.L. West championship season was tougher than Seattle’s 1995 title. The difference was psychological.

“Playing in front is a hard thing,” manager Lou Piniella said Tuesday night when the Mariners finally wrapped up the division by beating the pesky Anaheim Angels 4-3.

“I think the fans and everybody wanted us to win this back in July,” Joey Cora said. “It was tough.”

“We were the hunted, not the hunters,” Piniella added.

Griffey, who hit homers Nos. 54 and 55 in Oakland on Monday night, contributed a broken-bat single in the Mariners’ four-run first inning - but no homers.

Was he disappointed he couldn’t get any closer to Roger Maris’ record of 61 homers?

“I always set my team goals higher than my personal goals,” said Griffey, taking timeout from dumping the contents of champagne bottle after champagne bottle on his teammates’ heads in the locker room.

The Mariners had to come from 12-1/2 games back on Aug. 20 to catch the Angels two years ago.

This time - except for a 20-7 record in June - Seattle struggled to live up to its spring training billing. The Mariners were supposed to win their division easily. It didn’t happen because the Angels wouldn’t go away.

Finally, on their final homestand of the tension-filled season, the Mariners clinched it. Talent prevailed and Seattle has plenty of it.

Griffey, leading the majors with 145 RBIs in addition to the seventh-best home run total in history, is the favorite to become the A.L. MVP for the first time.

Jay Buhner, whose three-run homer in the first inning Tuesday night gave Johnson enough breathing room, became the 10th player in history to hit 40 homers in three consecutive seasons. He has driven in 109 runs but also has struck out a club-record 173 times.

Edgar Martinez, the team’s All-Star designated hitter and a two-time A.L. batting champion, has hit .330 with 28 homers and 108 RBIs.

Alex Rodriguez, last season’s batting champion and the starting All-Star shortstop, had 23 homers and 82 RBIs, while hitting .299. Not the .358, 36 homers and 123 RBIs of last season, but not shabby, either.

Cora, the All-Star second baseman, had a career year by hitting .302 with 11 homers and 54 RBIs.

Lots of offense to go along with a starting pitching rotation featuring three left-handers who went a combined 52-17. Johnson, despite missing four starts with tendinitis, went 19-4. Jeff Fassero, acquired by the Mariners in a trade with Montreal during the off-season, went 16-9 and worked a club-leading 229 innings. And Jamie Moyer was 17-4 to improve his record to 23-6 since being acquired from Boston in a trade for Darren Bragg July, 1996.

Seattle’s opening playoff foe will be Baltimore, the A.L. East champ. The Orioles took Seattle seven out of 11 times during the regular season. A Seattle-Baltimore best-of-5 series will open in the Kingdome on Wednesday, with Game 3 in Baltimore Oct. 4. Games 4 and 5, if necessary, would be in Baltimore.