In Game 3, Mariners Get to Play Their Ace : AL playoffs: Randy Johnson, who pitched deciding game against Angels, tries to slow down Yankees tonight.

Their American League division series is only two games old, but rich story lines abound between the New York Yankees and Seattle Mariners.

There’s Mariner center fielder Ken Griffey Jr., the young superstar who has shined in his first postseason but can’t seem to wrest the spotlight from the Yankees, who have reduced Griffey’s three home runs and superb defense to subplots by winning the first two games.

And Yankee designated hitter Ruben Sierra, the former Oakland player who feuded with A’s General Manager Sandy Alderson and was called a “village idiot” by Oakland Manager Tony La Russa, has become a playoff hero in New York with two prodigious home runs and four RBIs in Yankee Stadium.

There’s Yankee icon Don Mattingly, thriving in his first postseason, with five hits in two games, and the tenacious, momentum-snatching New York counterattack--in the eight innings in which the Mariners scored in the first two games, the Yankees scored in the bottom half of those innings five times, including the 12th inning of Wednesday night’s 15-inning marathon.

But the biggest--and tallest--tale of the series will finally unfold tonight when Randy Johnson, the 6-foot-10 Seattle ace, the flame-throwing left-hander known as the “Big Unit,” takes the mound in the Kingdome for Game 3.

“Anyone who faces Randy here is going to think the mound is a little closer and the dome a little darker,” said Norm Charlton, Seattle reliever. “It’s a big advantage for us because we’re comfortable here, and we [the bullpen] almost get a day off every time Randy throws. His intensity, his will to win, is something special.”

The Angels can attest to that. They were Johnson’s latest road kill, succumbing in Monday’s one-game playoff to determine the AL West champion, 9-1, in Seattle.

Johnson, working on three days’ rest, had a perfect game for 5 2/3 innings, gave up only three hits and struck out 12, bringing his major league-leading total to 294. The Mariners are 27-3 in games he has started, and Johnson is 4-0 with a 2.78 earned-run average in the six starts he has made on three days’ rest.

Johnson (18-2) was so fired up Monday that some of his fastballs were clocked at 99 m.p.h., and after striking out Tony Phillips to end the sixth inning he came off the field, thrust his arms in the air and let out a primal scream.

“He shows a lot of emotion on the mound,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “It’s good for the team. It pumps them up.”

Johnson, who has stopped 13 Seattle losing streaks this season, was a spectator in New York, but even in absentia, he has been the story of the series. Why? Because he can pitch only one of a possible five games, and that fact alone is why the Yankees were tabbed favorites.

Had the Mariners not lost twice in Texas last weekend and the Angels not won their last five to force the one-game playoff, Johnson, who will oppose right-hander Jack McDowell (15-10) tonight, wouldn’t have been burning up his arm throwing 124 pitches against the Angels on Monday.

But Seattle couldn’t get to the playoffs without winning Monday’s game, and Piniella couldn’t save his ace against the Angels, so the Yankees are all the better for it.

Instead of facing Johnson’s nasty fastball/slider combination in Games 1 and 4, they have to face him only in Game 3. Instead of being heavily favored in two games, the Mariners will be heavily favored only once.

The Yankees, meanwhile, started ace David Cone in Game 1 and have Cone scheduled to pitch Sunday’s Game 5, if necessary, on the usual four days’ rest.

“It’s not a whole lot of fun facing Randy once,” Yankee Manager Buck Showalter said. “But if you only have to face him once, it certainly enhances your chances.”