Mariners, Once in Driver’s Seat, Idled by Loss to Rangers

The Seattle Mariners, attempting one of baseball’s greatest comebacks, couldn’t quite finish it--at least not yet.

Seattle has one more chance to win the American League West, a winner-take-all game against the Angels today in the Kingdome.

The 145th game was forced because the Mariners lost, 9-3, to the Texas Rangers on Sunday. A few hours later, the Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 8-2, leaving both teams at 78-66.

“It will be nice to win it in front of the home folks,” Mariner Manager Lou Piniella said. “We’ve got a darn good pitcher and a team that plays darn good baseball. We’re still in great shape.”

Seattle will send Randy Johnson (17-2) against Mark Langston (15-6). Seattle won a coin flip last month for the right to play host.

“The beer tastes better at our place anyway,” Mariner outfielder Vince Coleman said. “We look forward to clinching at home. We play well there. We’ll be hyped.”

The winner of that game will travel to New York for a best-of-five first-round series against the Yankees, who won the wild-card spot with a 79-65 record.

A loss for Seattle today would make it 19 years in a row without the postseason for the franchise. It would be especially devastating because the Mariners overcame the midseason loss of Ken Griffey Jr. and still fought back.

It was somewhat surprising that Texas would be the spoiler. The Rangers had lost 15 of their previous 16 against the Mariners before the consecutive victories to close the season.

Seattle never put itself in position to win Sunday. Tim Belcher (10-12) gave up a three-run home run to Mickey Tettleton in the first. The Rangers increased their lead to 5-1 after four and 7-1 after five.

Seattle closed to 7-3 following a two-run homer by Mike Blowers in the sixth, but Texas answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning. The Mariners’ first run was a solo homer by Jay Buhner in the second.