Baseball's Most Exciting Games, No. 13: A Crossroads in the Bronx

Game 2, 1995 American League Division Series: Seattle Mariners at New York Yankees

October 4, 1995, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York

Yankees lead series 1-0

To this day, the most famous game of the 1995 American League Division Series was the last one. After overcoming a 2-0 series deficit to force a game 5, the Mariners came from behind in 8th inning to force extra innings, then came from behind again in the 11th, winning the game and series on Edgar Martinez's double. That hit is the greatest moment in Mariners' franchise history by such a large margin that the real discussion is what game would rank second. The double was the career-defining hit in the Martinez's Hall-of-Fame career, and that winning run was probably the greatest individual moment in Griffey's Hall-of-Fame career. It's one of those games that will live on in baseball lore, its memory long outliving the people who played in it or the people who watched it. It is a truly timeless game.

But it wasn't the best game of that series. At least not by the way I've been measuring them.

That distinction belongs to Game 2, a five-hour affair that ended during a steady rain at nearly 1:30 in the morning. The losing pitcher was a starter pitching his fourth inning in relief; the winning pitcher was a failed starter who was pitching in the first of his eventual 96 career postseason appearances. And while the team that won Game 2 didn't end up winning the series, that game may have set the stage for the start of one dynasty and the failure of another one.

Before we get to the early-morning rain, we have to make it through the early part of the game. Back-to-back 6th-inning home runs gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead. The Mariners responded by scoring two in the 7th. Paul O'Neill got the Yankees back to even with a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh.

And then there was four innings of virtually nothing. Only one runner made it as far as second base from the 8th inning through the 11th. Yankees closer John Wetteland, pitching his third inning of relief, got the first two Mariners out in the top of the 12th, as well, bringing Griffey to the plate with nobody on and two outs.

Playing in his first postseason, Griffey had told his Mariners teammates before the playoffs started to jump on his back and let him carry him. Surly inspired by his friend Kirby Puckett's similar speech in 1991, Griffey also followed Puckett's lead by backing up his talk. He homered twice in a losing effort in Game 1, then hit the biggest home run of his life to put the Mariners ahead in Game 2.

Holding an extra-inning lead, the Mariners didn't go to normal closer Bobby Ayala - who had been lit up in a non-save situation the night before - but instead went to starter Tim Belcher to try to close out the win. After two one-out walks, that was starting to look like a very bad decision. With a 2-0 count and two runners on, O'Neill lifted a flyball down the left field line that caused him to slam his bat down in disgust. But the Mariners were playing O'Neill to pull, so shaded around to right, and it took a diving catch by left fielder Alex Diaz to prevent the hit and keep the Mariners ahead.

That reprieve lasted one batter. Ruben Sierra hit one deep to left field; Diaz approached the fence tentatively, as if he thought it was going out. But the ball hit the very top of the wall and caromed right back at Diaz. Taking advantage of the fortunate hop, Diaz started the relay that nailed Bernie Williams at home to end the inning. The Yankees had tied the game, but the Mariners had survived to play another inning.

As the rain started to fall, the game became a battel between Belcher, a long-time starter playing in the postseason for his third different team, and Mariano Rivera, pitching in the first postseason game of his Hall-of-Fame career. Rivera cruised through his first two full innings, including striking out the side in the top of the 14th. Belcher had a little more difficulty, allowing a leadoff single in both the 13th and 14th, but was able to escape without further trouble both times. 

In the top of the 15th, Rivera's legendary cutter started to make its first appearance. First, Griffey was a victim, swinging at a pitch over the plate but making contact with a ball in on his hands for a soft fly out to start the inning. After two singles and a strike out, Tino Martinez met the same fate - swinging at a ball over the middle but hitting a ball in on his hands for a soft fly out. 

Jim Leyritz about to do end the game. Kind of a
weird batting stance, no?

And so came the bottom of the 15th, and a tiring Belcher pitching in the rain after 1:00 in the morning in the Bronx. After a ground out and a walk, Jim Leyritz came up and finally put everybody to bed.

Despite losing the heartbreaker in Game 2, the Mariners ended up winning the series. That's already been mentioned. But this was the only postseason series the Mariners won with all four future or should be hall-of-famers on the roster (besides Griffey and Martinez,  Randy Johnson would win Game 3 of the series as a starter and Game 5 in relief, and Alex Rodriguez was a rookie part-time shortstop who didn't even play in Game 2). Griffey and Johnson were both gone by the time the year 2000 rolled along, and only Martinez was left on the Mariners team that won 116 games in 2001. After that team lost in the ALCS, the Mariners began a postseason drought that is still active today. A would-be dynasty ended up fizzling out before reaching the promised land. 

The young Yankees players, meanwhile, learned that they could compete with the best. Led by O'Neill and Williams and Rivera, and with the addition of Tino Martinez from the Mariners and Derek Jeter from the minors, the Yankees would win four of the next five World Series, becoming the dynasty everybody thought the Mariners would become.

Game 2, 1995 American League Division Series Overall Rank: 13 Top 10 Swing: 236 Top play: Ken Griffey Jr. homers off John Wetteland in T12 (WPA of 40% for Seattle)* Loser's largest WE: 87 B12, 1 out, nobody on, Seattle up 5-4 Average LI: 1.85 Highest leverage moment: 7.16 (Seattle up 5-4, B12, runners on 1st and 2nd, 1 out, Paul O'Neill up) *New York's top moment was Leyritz's game-winning home run (WPA of 36%)