On October 15, 2019, the Seattle Mariners hit an inflection point. This was through no action of their own on that date—they’d endured a miserable 94-loss season and were long since home for the winter—rather, it was because their last remaining partner in pennantless misery had shaken the ghost. The Washington Nationals polished off a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 2019 National League pennant and guarantee a trip to the World Series.
Through 36 seasons as the Montreal Expos and 14 more as the Nats after relocation, it had been a half-century of pain for the franchise, from Blue Monday and 1994 in Montreal to Daniel Descalso & Pete Kozma and an agonizing 18 innings in DC. In 2019, however, the Nats spun what turned out to be their last shot in a competitive window into both a pennant and a World Series trophy. That left the Mariners alone among the 30 teams in Major League Baseball, as everyone else had been to the Fall Classic at least once — even expansion teams that had joined the league long after them.
It’s a little strange how the Mariners ended up on this island. Their fascinating history has been well-documented in these circles before, but while most of their tenure has featured subpar on-field products, they had a core easily good enough to win it all a few decades ago. Ken Griffey Jr. Randy Johnson. Edgar Martinez. Alex Rodriguez. Ichiro Suzuki. All of these baseball legends starred in Seattle under manager Lou Piniella as the Mariners made three trips to the American League Championship Series between 1995 and 2001.
In ‘95, the story was saving the mere concept baseball in Seattle. The team nearly succumbed to the fate that would later claim the Expos, as relocation was on the table and probably would’ve happened had the Mariners not made an improbable rally. They erased the California Angels’ 13-game lead from early August with a 35-20 run, the best baseball ever seen in Seattle since coming into the league as an expansion team in 1977. They caught the Angels for the AL West lead and Johnson spun a three-hitter on three days’ rest in the Game 163 tiebreaker to secure Seattle’s first-ever playoff spot after 18 years of mostly losing seasons.
From there, another stirring rally followed, as the M’s came back from down 0-2 to Don Mattingly’s New York Yankees to knock them out with three wins in a row at the Kingdome, capped by Edgar’s series-clinching double to score Griffey.
All of it was enough to convince Seattle to pass funding for a new stadium, their current home of T-Mobile Park. But it could have been even better.
The 1995 American League Championship Series is often considered an afterthought. The Mariners were simply out of gas after that furious late-season run and ALDS rally and just fell short against an absolute powerhouse. Well … that’s somewhat true, but not the whole story. The M’s were heavy underdogs in that series, as Cleveland went 100-44 in the semi-shortened slate behind one of the most celebrated offenses in MLB history, and they celebrated their own first playoff appearance in an age by promptly dusting the Boston Red Sox in a three-game sweep.
So in Game 1, Cleveland was well-rested while Seattle was still a little bleary-eyed just a day and a half after trouncing New York. The All-Star and 20-year veteran Dennis Martínez faced a Mariners rookie, Bob Wolcott. The mismatch on paper surprisingly went to Seattle, as a Mike Blowers two-run homer proved key in a 3-2 Mariners win. Wolcott bent but did not break in seven strong innings, and Luis Sojo channeled his Game 163 heroics with a go-ahead double in the seventh to knock out “El Presidente.”
Homers from Griffey and Jay Buhner weren’t enough to win Game 2 against former Dodgers great Orel Hershiser, and the series shifted to Ohio all even. Cleveland had gone a staggering 54-18 at then-Jacobs Field in the regular season, so now would be the time to seize control of the series, right? Buhner had other ideas:
Buhner’s homer in the second helped make extra innings possible, and though his error on a misplayed fly ball led to Cleveland tying it in the eighth against Johnson, the slugger atoned for it with an 11th-inning three-run bomb. Norm Charlton’s third scoreless frame closed it out and the Mariners held a 2-1 series lead, two wins away from the World Series with the ALCS guaranteed to return to Seattle.
That may have been where the ‘95 Mariners finally ran out of steam. Game 4 was an uncompetitive 7-0 shutout, and though Seattle fought back against Hershiser to hold a one-run lead with just over three innings to go in Game 5, Jim Thome clobbered a two-run bomb off Chris Bosio to put Cleveland back in front for good. Piniella tried for one last bit of magic with Johnson on short rest in the win-or-go-home Game 6 at the Kingdome. The decision couldn’t help the now-slumbering Mariners offense though. Dennis Martínez led the way in a shutout (Seattle’s second in three games), and while Johnson valiantly held the powerful Cleveland lineup to one tally through seven, he faltered at last in the eighth.
Kenny Lofton and Carlos Baerga highlighted a three-run inning, the former scoring from second on a passed ball to catch Johnson and the M’s napping, and the latter sending him to the showers with a knockout solo shot. The adoring Seattle crowd gave “the Big Unit” a huge ovation, but their miraculous run was at an end. Little did they know that they would never again come so close to a World Series with the future first-ballot Hall of Famers Griffey and Johnson.
It took a few years for Seattle to return to the precipice of the Fall Classic. An offense that scored 993 runs couldn’t make up for a shaky pitching staff in ‘96 and they missed the playoffs by a few games. They rebounded to win the AL West again in ‘97, only to sputter out in a four-game ALDS at the hands of the Orioles, with Johnson twice getting outpitched by another future Cooperstown honoree, Mike Mussina. Seattle fell under .500 the next two years and gradually bid adieu to franchise icons, as Johnson was dealt to the Astros in ‘98 ahead of free agency and at his request during the 1999-2000 offseason, Griffey was sent home to his dad’s old team, the Cincinnati Reds.
Change was in the air, but with Edgar and now-superstar A-Rod joined by a solid pitching staff, Griffey trade acquisition Mike Cameron, and former Washington State star John Olerud, the M’s stormed back to October baseball via the Wild Card. Their shiny new ballpark would host postseason ball for the first time. They then upset the top-seeded Chicago White Sox in the ALDS, sweeping them away on a walk-off squeeze play from rookie Carlos Guillén, who had arrived in Seattle alongside 1999 AL Rookie of the Year runner-up Freddy García in the Johnson trade with Houston.
One obstacle stood in their path to the AL pennant, and it was a familiar, daunting foe: the Yankees. They had picked themselves up off the mat following their ‘95 loss to Seattle and ripped off three World Series titles in four years under Joe Torre, and were eyeing a three-peat. The 2000 campaign had seen them stumble to an ugly 3-15 finish in September (clinching the division while getting blown out in Baltimore on a Red Sox loss elsewhere), but they beat the Oakland Athletics in a five-game ALDS to punch their own ticket for this rematch.
Seattle was quick to take advantage of the uneven Yanks, shutting them out 2-0 at Yankee Stadium behind a García gem and a majestic blow by A-Rod off the top of the left-field foul pole.
The zeroes continued the next day in Game 2, and although they missed opportunities to do more damage, the Mariners were up 1-0 in the eighth, six outs from taking a 2-0 series lead back to Seattle. Regrettably, relievers Arthur Rhodes and José Mesa were atrocious. They woke up the Yankees’ bats in an eight-hit, seven-run inning capped by a two-run homer from Derek Jeter.
The M’s were knocked off track and let the series get away from them at home. Game 3 was a tight 4-2 affair in the eighth, and when A-Rod led off with a hit (and stole second), Seattle had three chances to tie the game with a homer. Jeff Nelson struck out his former teammate Edgar, and Mariano Rivera entered to induce a groundout from pinch-hitter Stan Javier. A fly ball to left from Olerud ended the threat, allowing the Yankees to put the game away with a four-run ninth against Brett Tomko and Robert Ramsay. Game 4 was no contest, with Seattle getting utterly dominated by Roger Clemens in one of the best games pitched in playoff history: a one-hit, 15-strikeout shutout. Just as they did in ‘95, the Mariners would need to win three in a row against the Yankees to save their season.
Piniella turned to García in Game 5, and he responded with a gritty five-inning, two-run outing that saw nine baserunners reach but limited damage. A 2-1 Yankees lead got flipped in the sixth, when Edgar and Olerud clobbered back-to-back homers off Nelson in a five-run frame. The bullpen did its job this time, with Rhodes recording four outs and AL Rookie of the Year Kazuhiro Sasaki (who came over from the NPB) closed it with an inning and two-thirds. The 6-2 Mariners triumph sent the ALCS back to New York, and it was all Seattle early on, especially when Guillén took El Duque to the upper deck for a 4-0 lead.
The Yankees chipped away against John Halama, but the Mariners still led in the seventh, 4-3. They were just a couple innings away from forcing a Game 7. Then José Paniagua put two on with one out for former Braves standout David Justice. Piniella called on Rhodes, and Justice essentially called game.
The M’s did make it more nervy than expected and had chances with Buhner and Edgar up in the eighth and ninth respectively as the tying runs. Alas, Rivera made his pitch when he needed to, fanning Buhner and gettng a groundout from Edgar to polish off the pennant. They went on to win their third consecutive World Series title.
Secret Base’s Jon Bois and Alex Rubenstein have already chronicled the master class that was the 2001 Mariners. In short, they were a stupefyingly strong, balanced ballclub that somehow shook off losing yet another superstar (A-Rod) to return to the top of the AL West with a modern record 116 victories. Edgar, García, Olerud, Cameron, Sasaki, free-agent steal Bret Boone, and the incomparable Ichiro Suzuki all starred on this remarkable team. No one could have possibly seen this coming, and even now 24 years later, it’s amazing that it even happened at all.
This was the year. It had to be the year.
The Mariners were unstoppable! The All-Star Game happened to be in Seattle in 2001, and they sent eight All-Star to the Midsummer Classic! Ichiro was AL Rookie of the Year and MVP, the first to win both since Boston’s Fred Lynn in 1975! They were 20 games ahead of second place by mid-June, 50 games over .500 by August 4th, won their 100th game on September 5th, and surpassed even the celebrated 1998 Yankees to set the American League record for wins. They were a steamroller and ready to bring not only the pennant but a World Series trophy to Seattle.
Then the playoffs began and it got scary in a hurry. The other ‘95 nemesis, Cleveland, nearly delivered the first-round upset of first-round upsets. The still-young Bartolo Colón outdueled García in the Seattle opener, which the road team stole in a shutout. The Mariners punched back with a smooth 5-1 win in Game 2, only to take a sledgehammer to the face in Game 3, an embarrassing 17-2 blowout in Cleveland. One more loss would send the M’s home for the winter in a blink. They snapped their scoreless streak against Colón in the seventh inning of Game 4, taking a 3-1 and riding a soaring Edgar bomb in the ninth to a 6-2 victory. With their confidence restored and back home in Seattle, the Mariners secured the winner-take-all Game 5 in a combined four-hitter as the ageless Jamie Moyer won his second game of the series. They were heading back to the ALCS.
Their opponent was the division rival “Moneyball” A’s of Jason Giambi and company, who had seized a 2-0 series lead on the road, returned home and never looked ba—
Just kidding, they had to face those freakin’ Yankees again. Thanks in part to Jeter’s “Flip Play,” New York had roared back with three consecutive wins to send the A’s packing and return to the ALCS in their quest to win a fourth-straight title and fifth in six years.
Despite all the regular season success, home-field advantage, and the bevy of talent at Seattle’s disposal, the M’s couldn’t get much of anything going in the first two games. In the opener, Andy Pettitte rolled over them in eight innings of three-hit ball, and the soon-to-retire Paul O’Neill defied Father Time with a two-run homer to key the 4-2 Yankees win. Game 2 saw more Mariner frustrations, as García gave the Yanks an early 3-0 advantage, and despite a two-run dinger from Javier off Yankee newcomer Mussina in the fourth, Seattle could never strike the tying blow, stranding a runner in scoring position in the seventh and watching Rivera go five up, five down to end it.
The former Yankee Piniella was incensed by his old team taking it to his record-breaking club. Speaking to the media after the Game 2 loss, he guaranteed a return to Seattle.
”We’re going to be back here to play Game 6, OK? … I’ve got confidence in my ballclub. We’ve gone to New York and beat them five out of six times this season and we’re going to do it again.
“I haven’t seen anything so dominant over there … They’re a team ready to get beat if anyone would go out there and beat them … I don’t mind sticking my neck on the line by saying what I said. You just have to go out and kick their asses. That’s all you have to do.”
It took until halfway through Game 3 for the Mariners to regain their ass-kicking swagger. They erupted for 14 runs across the final five innings in the Bronx to win going away. Even the now-limited Buhner got in on the fun against his original team with what turned out to be his final career home run.
The next day, Boone put them on the brink of a series tie by breaking a scoreless duel in the eighth with a homer off Ramiro Mandoza. Alas, the man who allowed the devastating Justice bomb the previous year coughed it up again, Bernie Williams quickly taking Rhodes deep to tie it back up. Rivera kept Seattle off the board in the ninth, and in came Sasaki to send it to extras. The All-Star closer hadn’t allowed a homer since June 10th.
So naturally, rookie Alfonso Soriano sent the formerly ass-kicking M’s into a tailspin.
Unlike in 2000, there wasn’t much fight left in Seattle after falling behind in the series 3-1. Piniella’s prophecy went for naught with Pettitte rolling to ALCS MVP honors in Game 5 amid a 12-3 blowout. The magnificent season was over and the Mariners were forced to claim their spot in history as the greatest regular season team to never play in a World Series.
At least the Home Run Derby champion from that summer’s All-Star festivities in Seattle did them a solid in terms of schadenfreude against the Yanks, I suppose.
Yes, it’s true that the only constant from those three runs was Edgar, and Ichiro only debuted at the end of that stretch. Nonetheless, there was plenty of talent on each team beyond the stars, and of course that 2001 squad was loaded. Surely they would break through for a pennant eventually!
Well, after 2001, the Mariners took a downturn, first through just a couple seasons of narrowly missing the playoffs and then an extended drought that lasted 21 years — all while squandering the career of ace Félix Hernández to boot. The 2010 AL Cy Young Award winner made 418 starts and threw over 2,700 innings in Seattle across 15 seasons, never making it to the playoffs. But when the Mariners fell in ‘01, they were far from alone in still seeking their first pennant, and they seemed much closer to getting there than their contemporaries (though they did have to watch in jealousy as the departed Johnson starred for the still-new Arizona Diamondbacks while winning the ’01 NL pennant and beating the Yankees in the World Series). Unfortunately for Seattle, one by one they began to succeed there Seattle had fallen.
The very next year, the Angels went from 41 games behind in 2001 to World Series champions in 2002. The Houston Astros ended their own history of October misery with an NL pennant in 2005 (eight years before joining the AL West as a Mariners rival). Subsequent campaigns saw the Tampa Bay Rays, the Texas Rangers, and yes, even the Colorado Rockies make it to the Fall Classic. For nearly a decade, it was just the Nationals and Mariners left out in the cold; then, it was only Seattle.
Three years ago, a new generation of Mariners snapped the playoff drought in dramatic fashion. The man who would be the focal point of this current team, Cal Raleigh, clinched it with a walk-off homer at T-Mobile Park. The M’s somewhat infamously got swept in the Division Series by the eventual World Series champion Astros, thanks to a back-breaking Yordan Alvarez walk-off homer in Game 1 and an 18-inning, 1-0 shutout in the first playoff game in Seattle in 21 years.
Before they got to that point though, the Mariners had to win in the newly-adopted Wild Card Series. Their opponent? The same club that they’re tasked with taking down now: the Toronto Blue Jays, a foe that always brings a fascinating atmosphere to T-Mobile Park due its proximity to Vancouver (which featured both M’s and Jays fans). Back then, they dispatched the Jays in a two-and-out in Toronto, winning Game 1 on a gem from starter Luis Castillo and shocking the fans at Rogers Centre in Game 2 with a seven-run comeback, the largest by a road team in playoff history.
Players on both rosters have since turned over, but stars like Raleigh, Julio Rodríguez, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Kevin Gausman remain (among others). The Mariners’ manager is their popular catcher from the earlier era, Dan Wilson, and just as a small added bit of flair, the ‘95 rival Mattingly is Toronto’s bench coach.
This is sure to be a spirited showdown, and while the Toronto franchise has its own ALCS moments from recent memory that it would like to set aside, the Mariners are playing to at last reach their first World Series. In almost any other AL matchup, it would be easy to pick the Jays as the sentimental favorites, as it’s been 32 years since Joe Carter touched ‘em all and a charged-up Rogers Centre makes for an electric environment.
However, the Seattle Mariners are one of one. And they would very much like to no longer be one of one.
