1995 ALDS: Seattle's Magic Moment

Pregame
There was a lot of excitement for the two fan bases involved in the 1995 ALDS. For the Yankees, it was their first postseason appearance since 1981, a drought that probably had their fans about ready to give up on the sport. The 14-year drought was the longest for the franchise since Babe Ruth led them to their first World Series in 1921.

Going up against them was the Seattle Mariners, making the first postseason appearance in franchise history. If that wasn't exciting enough for Seattle fans, the Mariners came back from 12.5 games back on August 20 to tie the Angels, then won a one-game playoff for the AL West title. It was, without question, the most exciting season the Mariners had yet had.

But then the Mariners had to face the Yankees, and they had to do so with their ace, Randy Johnson, likely available for only one of the five games. Since Seattle's pitching philosophy that year seemed to be "Randy Johnson, then score in double digits for 4 straight games," that didn't bode well.

The first two games of the ALCS couldn't have gone worse for Seattle. Not only did the Yankees win both games at home, but Game 2 was a 15-inning marathon that drained Seattle's already-suspect bullpen. The Mariners needed a big start from Johnson in Game 3, and he delivered, pitching seven innings and leading the Mariners to their first ever postseason victory. A five-run eighth inning lead to a 11-8 Mariners win in Game 4, setting up a winner-take-all Game 5.

The Game
The Mariners of the mid-90s centered around three transcendent stars. Aside from Johnson in the rotation, they had a lineup built around Edgar Martinez and Ken Griffey, Jr., two of the most gifted hitters of their generation. The 1995 postseason was widely seen as merely the first of many future playoff appearances for that trio. And the Mariners knew they were going to need big performances from all three to win the series. Through four games, all three had delivered.

In a perfect world, the Mariners would have had Johnson pitching Game 5 at home. But with only one day off after his Game 3 start, he was considered unavailable for Game 5. If they were going to beat the Yankees, they would have to do it without him.

For seven innings, things didn't look good. The Yankees had jumped out to an early 4-2 lead, and David Cone was holding down the Mariners. He entered the eighth having already thrown 123 pitches, but Yankees manager Buck Showalter left him in. The Yankees had a young bullpen - including a rookie named Mariano Rivera - and he always showed a preference for veterans over young players.

And so it was Cone on the mound in the top of the eighth when, with one out, Griffey came up in what was the biggest at bat in Mariners history. He took one pitch, a ball. He didn't take the second one. And by the time it landed beyond the right field fence, the Kingdome was louder than perhaps it had ever been. And though they were still down a run when Griffey stepped on home plate, Seattle fans seemed to sense that something magical was going to happen that night.



Cone was still on the mound later that inning when Doug Strange drew a bases-loaded walk, scoring rookie Alex Rodriguez with the game-tying run. By then Showalter realized that Cone was cooked and took him out. But with the game tied and the Kingdome rocking, it was far too late.

If the Kingdome was loud after Griffey's home run, it got even louder in the top of the ninth when the bullpen doors opened and Randy Johnson came jogging to the mound. It didn't matter that two runners were on base with nobody out. With Johnson on the mound, Mariners fans were thinking, there was no way they were going to lose. He got out of the ninth. He struck out the side in the 10th. He was on a roll.

Then, the unthinkable. He gave up a run. The Yankees started the 11th with a walk and a sacrifice, then a seeing-eye single snuck through the left side of the infield to score the go-ahead run. It was stunning. How could Johnson have given up a run? After everything that had happened that year? He got the final two outs on strike outs, but the Mariners' magical season was down to its final three outs.

But look who was due up in the 11th. After Joey Cora, it was Griffey and Martinez. If the Mariners were going to go down, they were going down fighting. Showalter gave the Mariners a break, too, by not going to his closer, John Wetteland, to close out the series, and instead going with Jack McDowell a veteran starter who was making his first career relief appearance. Sure, Showalter liked the veterans, but this seemed ridiculous.

Cora, perhaps knowing he was destined to play just a bit role in the drama, placed a perfect bunt down the first-base line to lead off the inning with a single. Up came Griffey. Of course it was Griffey. He couldn't possibly hit another home run, could he? Well, no. But his single worked just fine. Besides - maybe it was fate. Because up next was Martinez. Johnson and Griffey had each made their marks on this game. Now it was Martinez's turn.

Mariner fans can still see it. The sharp line drive down the left field line. Left fielder Gerald Williams chasing it in vain. The television cutting to Griffey, heading toward third, running the bases faster than he ever had before. The throw coming in, but too late, as Griffey slid home into a pile of delirious teammates. The greatest moment in franchise history.



Postgame
As high as Seattle was flying after beating the Yankees, they still had some work to do. And it was hard work, facing Cleveland in the ALCS. Cleveland could have been seen as a Cinderella story, considering they hadn't been to the playoffs since 1954, but this team was scary good. The best American League team in at least a decade, if not longer.

But the Mariners gave it a good fight. Still flying high from their incredible Game 5 win, they won Game 1 3-2. Cleveland bounced back to take Game 2, but Game 3 was Johnson's turn. He went 8, the game went 11, and Seattle was back on top of the series.

But that was it. Cleveland won the next two at home to take a 3-2 series lead. Back home in Seattle for Game 6, the Mariners moved Johnson up a game. In theory, the move made sense, as you don't want to get eliminated with your best pitcher sitting and watching. And Johnson pitched valiantly in Game 6, and he was trailing only 1-0 as the game went to the eighth. But then the Yankees scored two runs on one passed ball, and then Johnson gave up a home run to make it 4-0. Lou Piniella took the ball from him at that point, and the Mariner fans gave him a standing ovation. In reality, it might have been an ovation for the entire team for giving them a ride unlike any the city had seen.

The Rundown
What am I doing? Go here to find out. The list so far:

3. Seattle 6, N.Y. Yankees 5 (1995 ALDS)
4. Colorado 9, San Diego 8 (2007 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
5. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 4 (1978 AL East tiebreaker)
6. San Francisco 6, Los Angeles 4 (1962 National League playoff)
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 American League tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)

2008 AL Central tiebreaker: 1,151 home runs

Pregame
Neither team had really proved that they belonged here. The 2008 Twins were a team in transition, a team looking for leadership after losing Johan Santana and Torii Hunter from the previous season. They didn't have a true ace in the staff, had a revolving door at three of the four infield positions, and didn't have much power.

But they did have Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, a pair of past and future MVPs who provided the majority of the offensive attack. And while they didn't have a true ace in the starting staff, they had a bunch of young pitchers who were good enough, who could get them within striking distance.

The 2008 White Sox were as one-dimensional as they come. They led the American League in home runs, but were in the middle to near the bottom of the league in virtually every other stat. They sat around and waited for their bashers to hit a three-run home run.

The White Sox way shouldn't have worked, but it did, as they held first place through most of the summer. In August, the Twins closed the gap, and the two spent the rest of the season taking turns holding the top spot. They weren't strong teams, but they were in a weak division, so somebody had to win. Neither one was good enough to pull away from the other, so they played in a tight pennant race.

Entering the final weekend of the season, the Twins had a half-game lead over Chicago, on account of Chicago having had a game rained out earlier in the year. The Twins were hosting the last-place Royals for three games, while Chicago hosted the not-much-better Indians for three.

Fitting their status as merely above-average teams, neither the Sox nor the Twins could seal the deal. Both teams lost the first two games of their must-win series. On the final Sunday of the season, Minnesota beat Kansas City to clinch a tie for the title, then watched the scoreboard as Chicago beat Cleveland. That set up an unusual situation where Chicago had to play one extra game, a home game against Detroit, while the Twins sat at home waiting to see whether they would travel to their first postseason game or to Chicago for a tiebreaker game.

Entering the bottom of the sixth trailing 2-1, Chicago tied the game off Detroit, then saw Alexi Ramirez hit a grand slam to clinch the game. When his ball left the yard, the Twins started boarding their plane. The game was over by the time they landed.

The Game
It should be no surprise that on a team centered around the home run that two of the most prolific home run hitters of all time would be in the lineup. 37-year-old Jim Thome, he of the 539 career home runs, was in his third season as Chicago's DH, while 41-year-old Ken Griffey, Jr., with 611 career home runs, joined the team in July for the pennant chase.

With two future hall-of-famers in the lineup, there should have been no surprise that they would play a role in the outcome of the game. The first opportunity came in the top of the fifth, when Michael Cuddyer led off with a double for the Twins first hit of the game. Cuddyer moved to third on a flyout, then watched as Brendan Harris lifted a flyball right to Griffey in center field.

Now in past years, in Griffey's defensive prime, that would have been an automatic no-running situation. But Griffey was 41 now, his best years well behind him, and with how well John Danks had been pitching, there's no telling when the Twins would get another chance. So when Griffey caught the ball, Cuddyer took off. Griffey reached down to whatever he had left, turned back the clock, and fired a bullet to catcher A.J. Pierzynski to throw out Cuddyer and end the inning.

The Twins had to know, then, that that was the game. They weren't hitting Danks. And for all of Nick Blackburn's brilliant pitching, the added pressure of every inning was bound to get to him.

Enter Thome. Leading off the seventh, he worked a 2-2 count on Blackburn. Then he got a hold of one. And when Thome gets ahold of one, it's a beautiful thing, a high, towering blast, one that seems like it has a better chance of going into orbit than of landing somewhere in the stadium. His seventh inning home run was like that, landing beyond the bleachers in center field.

And that was it. The Twins were only down 1-0, but Danks was just too good, the Twins lineup too suspect. They got one more hit off him, in the eighth, but that runner was erased by a double play. Bobby Jenks came in to get the save in the ninth, and Chicago celebrated the division title.

Postgame
Chicago had won three straight games against three different opponents on three straight days, a stretch during which even a single loss would have eliminated them. If anybody should have been ready for the postseason, it would have been them. But they ran into the surprising Tampa Bay Rays, a team with a pitching staff that knew how to keep the ball away from the meaty part of the White Sox bats, and Chicago fell in four games.

The Twins used their experience from 2008 and did pretty much the same thing in 2009, trailing most of the season before catching the Tigers on the final day of the season. This time, though, the playoff game was in the Dome, and the Twins beat the Tigers in a game that somehow was even better than this one.

The Rundown
7. Chicago 1, Minnesota 0 (2008 AL Central tiebreaker)
8. N.Y. Yankees 5, Boston 3 (1949 American League)
9. Arizona 2, St. Louis 1 (2001 NLDS)
10. Chicago 4, New York 2 (1908 National League makeup game)
11. Boston 12, Cleveland 8 (1999 ALDS)
12. Boston 5, Minnesota 3 (1967 American League)
13. Minnesota 5, Oakland 4 (2002 ALDS)
14. Boston 4, Oakland 3 (2003 ALDS)
15. Cleveland 4, N.Y. Yankees 3 (1997 ALDS)
16. L.A. Angels 5, N.Y. Yankees 3 (2005 ALDS)
17. Texas 5, Tampa Bay 1 (2010 ALDS)
18. San Francisco 3, Atlanta 1 (2002 NLDS)
19. N.Y. Yankees 5, Oakland 3 (2001 ALDS)
20. Seattle 3, Cleveland 1 (2001 ALDS)
21. Chicago 5, San Francisco 3 (1998 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
22. N.Y. Yankees 7, Oakland 5 (2000 ALDS)
23. Los Angeles 4, Houston 0 (1981 NL West Division Series)
24. Montreal 3, Philadelphia 0 (1981 NL East Division Series)
25. N.Y. Yankees 7, Milwaukee 3 (1981 AL East Division Series)
26. Seattle 9, California 1 (1995 AL West tiebreaker)
27. Chicago 5, Atlanta 1 (2003 NLDS)
28. Houston 12, Atlanta 3 (2004 NLDS)
29. N.Y. Mets 5, Cincinnati 0 (1999 NL Wild Card tiebreaker)
30. Cleveland 8, Boston 3 (1948 AL tiebreaker)
31. Houston 7, Los Angeles 1 (1980 NL West tiebreaker)