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Weird, wacky stuff Mariners win wild card, date with White Sox
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Wild card or division title, it didn't seem to matter a bit to the Seattle Mariners amid their champagne-spraying frenzy in the club house. The Mariners clinched the AL wild-card spot and shut Cleveland out of the playoffs Sunday, getting home runs from Alex Rodriguez and David Bell to beat Anaheim 5-2. "It's been a long time, and all the emotion broke loose," said Seattle manager Lou Piniella, whose Mariners last were in the playoffs in 1997. "To go down to the last day, the last pitch of the last game, makes it especially rewarding," added Piniella, who at times looked as if he were standing under a waterfall as players gleefully dumped champagne, beer, and the contents of several ice chests on him. "It's awesome," Seattle's Jay Buhner said. "We definitely made it interesting. But at the same time, any time you can get to the postseason, that's what it's all about."
Rodriguez, expected to become baseball's most expensive free agent after the season, also was relieved the Mariners were headed to the playoffs. "It's been a stressful situation the last 10 days because we've been in a position where we had to do a little scoreboard watching, and in the position where we had to win," the Seattle shortstop said. "I take my hat off to Cleveland and Oakland. The A's deserve to have won the division, and Cleveland really made it hard for us. We're very blessed to be in this position." Victories by the Mariners and Athletics, who beat Texas 3-0, avoided any ties and several complex scenarios that could have involved one-game playoffs by any of the three contending teams. Also, the Athletics did not have to play a makeup game Monday at Tampa Bay because they already held the tiebreaker over the Mariners, going 9-4 against them. The Mariners, who hadn't been out of first place in the AL West since June 28 until they fell one-half game back of Oakland last Friday, open the best-of-5 first round at the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday. The Mariners saw on the Anaheim scoreboard before their game started that Cleveland had won, then late in the game against the Angels that Oakland also had won. "Before the first pitch, we knew Cleveland had won, so that was kind of a stressful situation for us going against a great Anaheim team," said Rodriguez, whose solo homer in the fourth was his 41st of the year. Bell hit a tiebreaking solo homer in the seventh and the Mariners got strong pitching from starter Aaron Sele, reliever Arthur Rhodes (5-8) and Kazuhiro Sasaki. Sasaki got his 37th save, breaking the major league record for a rookie set by Todd Worrell with St. Louis in 1986. Seattle's Raul Ibanez, who entered the game for defensive purposes with two out in the sixth inning, chipped in with a two-run double during a three-run seventh inning as the Mariners snapped a 2-2 tie. Bell led off with his 11th homer, hitting reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa's first pitch over the fence in left. Hasegawa (10-6) then gave up consecutive singles to Mark McLemore and Mike Cameron with one out before Ibanez's double. The Angels finished 82-80 under rookie manager Mike Scioscia, a 12-game improvement over 1999. Anaheim's Mo Vaughn could hear the celebration in the visitors' clubhouse. "We have to look at them with envy. That's where we want to be this time next year," he said. "To lose this game is demoralizing, but we've played well all year." Rodriguez led off the fourth with his 41st homer, driving Mark Petkovsek's breaking ball over the wall in left, a 422-foot shot that pulled the Mariners within 2-1. Petkovsek, a reliever making only his second AL start, filled in for Scott Schoeneweis, who was a late scratch because of stiffness in his lower back. Mike Cameron tied it at 2 with an RBI double in the Seattle sixth. Sele got off to a shaky start, giving up in the first inning but settled down afterward. Rhodes pitched out of a bases-loaded jam after taking over for Sele with two out and two on in the sixth. A fielding error by Rodriguez on Adam Kennedy's grounder left the bases loaded, but Rhodes struck out Benji Gil to end that threat. Notes: Before the Mariners took the field Sunday, the television in Piniella's office was tuned into the Cleveland-Toronto game. But the TV in the players' section of the clubhouse had the New York Giants-Tennessee NFL game on. ... Seattle's Edgar Martinez finished with an AL-leading 145 RBIs, just two shy of major league leader Todd Helton of Colorado. The only other player in the Mariners' 24-year history to lead the AL in RBIs was Ken Griffey Jr., with 147 in 1997. ... Despite the numerous individual and teams records the Angels have set offensively this season, their final attendance total was only 2,066,977 -- their lowest figure in three seasons since the ballpark was reduced from 65,158 capacity to 45,050. ... Then Angels' Darin Erstad got one hit to total 240 for the year, the most in the majors since Wade Boggs also hit 240 in 1985. George Sisler tops the all-time list with 257 in 1920.
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