BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Magical Mariners Unstoppable : AL: Dramatic finish at the Kingdome sees Seattle win, 6-5, in the 11th to oust Yankees in fifth game.

Just when you thought the Magical Mariner Tour had finally come to an end, when it seemed Seattle had exhausted every dramatic story line during its late-season surge into the playoffs, the Mariners came up with one more miracle finish Sunday night.

Edgar Martinez, who struck out with two on in the bottom of the ninth, lined a two-run double to left field in the 11th, scoring Joey Cora and Ken Griffey Jr. to lift Seattle to a 6-5 victory over the New York Yankees in the fifth and deciding game of the American League division series.

Mariner ace Randy Johnson, making only the third relief appearance of his career, allowed a run on Randy Velarde’s single in the top of the 11th, and walked dejectedly off the field.

“I thought all the hard work this team had done went down the drain,” he said. “I thought I let the team down.”

But Cora picked the Mariners up off the Kingdome carpet, leading off the 11th with a bunt single--his third in two days. Griffey, who homered into the second deck in right field in the eighth inning, then grounded a single to center off Yankee reliever Jack McDowell to set the stage for Martinez, who had seven RBIs in Game 4 Saturday.

Martinez’s hit went into the left-field corner, easily scoring Cora from second, and as Yankee left fielder Gerald Williams threw to shortstop Tony Fernandez, third-base coach Sam Perlozzo waved Griffey around third.

Griffey slid home ahead of Fernandez’s relay, touching off a Mt. St. Helens-sized eruption among the Kingdome crowd of 57,411, which cheered wildly for a good 20 minutes after the game.

“I thought last night [Game 4] was the greatest game I’d ever played,” said Martinez, who hit .571 in the series and had 30 RBIs against the Yankees this season. “But this one was the best game I’ve ever played.”

The Mariners, who will open the American League championship series at home against the Cleveland Indians Tuesday, became the fourth team in baseball history to come back from a 2-0 deficit and win a five-game series, joining the 1984 San Diego Padres (over the Chicago Cubs), the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers (Angels) and the 1981 Dodgers (Houston Astros).

They have faced elimination four times in the last seven days--they had to beat the Angels in a one-game playoff for the A.L. West title and the Yankees three times at home--and they won each game.

“It doesn’t matter what inning we’re in, what the situation, there’s no quit in this team,” right fielder Jay Buhner said amid popping corks and champagne showers in the Mariner clubhouse. “Each and every one of these guys believes we’re going to do it, we’re going to win. We have a lot of character, a lot of pride.”

Martinez’s heroics against the Yankees ended perhaps the best playoff series since the 1992 National League championship series, when Sid Bream slid home with the winning run in the bottom of the ninth to lead the Atlanta Braves over the Pittsburgh Pirates in a thrilling Game 7.

One of the Yankee-Mariner games lasted more than five hours, and two went more than four hours. The Yankees had to go 15 innings to win Game 2, and the Mariners worked overtime for their Game 5 victory Sunday. All three Seattle victories were come-from-behind efforts.

“These games were totally incredible, they went right down to the last second,” Buhner said. “You can’t ask for anything more. My hat goes off to the Yankees. It’s a shame someone had to lose.”

Johnson wound up the winner, but he was almost the loser. The 6-foot-10 left-hander replaced Norm Charlton with runners on first and second and no outs in the top of the ninth and struck out Wade Boggs and retired Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill on pop-ups.

Johnson struck out the side in the 10th, but opened the 11th by walking Mike Stanley. Fernandez sacrificed pinch-runner Pat Kelly to second, and Velarde’s single to left put the Yankees up, 5-4.

“After they scored, I went out and told Randy to get O’Neill out and we’ll win in the bottom of the inning,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “Then it was bing, bang, boom, the game was over.”

The Mariners trailed, 4-2, in the eighth when Griffey hit his fifth homer of the series. Edgar Martinez grounded to short for the second out, but Tino Martinez walked and Buhner singled to center.

Pinch-hitter Alex Diaz walked to load the bases, and starter David Cone walked pinch-hitter Doug Strange to force in the tying run.

The Mariners tapped a rare power source to take a 1-0 lead in the third inning, as Cora, the 5-foot-8, 155-pound second baseman who has seven homers in 2,028 career regular-season at-bats, sent a high Cone fastball into the right-field bleachers for a home run.

But O’Neill’s two-run homer in the fourth put New York ahead, 2-1. Seattle tied the game, 2-2, in the bottom of the fourth on Tino Martinez’s double and Buhner’s RBI single, but Don Mattingly’s bases-loaded double in the sixth gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead.

“It was a phenomenal series,” Piniella said. “There were so many ups and downs, highs and lows. These kids didn’t quit.”