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BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT

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<i> Associated Press</i>

At least the Mariners won’t have to deal with winds of 33 m.p.h. in the Kingdome.

Winds swirled in the crisp air of Jacobs Field on Sunday night, as the Mariners committed two errors and the Indians four.

Temperatures were in the low 50s, but the wind made it feel colder.

“It was terrible,” Mariner outfielder Jay Buhner said. “It was very cold, and from a hitter’s standpoint it was hard to stay focused at the plate. There was a crosswind and a lot of stuff in the air.”

But being a “dome team” playing near the southern shoreline of Lake Erie in mid-October wasn’t any tougher for the Mariners than the Indians.

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“Nobody can be used to this kind of stuff,” Buhner said.

Mariner first baseman Tino Martinez, who failed to field a grounder in the first inning for an error that led to Cleveland’s first run, said the weather wasn’t that much of a factor.

“It’s October, and you have to expect it now. It was as tough for us as it was for them,” he said.

But Indian shortstop Omar Vizquel, who used to play for the Mariners, said the wind affected the entire game.

“The wind was a factor in everything,” he said. “I think I’m allergic to cold. It really bothers me.”

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Overnight ratings for Game 4 of the baseball playoffs were down 3% from the comparable night two years ago and 18% from the previous night.

NBC’s regionalized coverage on Saturday night got a 10.6 rating and a 19 share in the 33 major markets, Nielsen Media Research said Sunday. Two years ago, the Saturday night game between Toronto and the Chicago White Sox got a 10.9 overnight rating.

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On Friday night, NBC’s regional coverage got a 13.0 overnight rating and a 23 share. National ratings will be released later this week.

Nationally, each ratings point represents 959,000 homes. The rating is the percentage watching a program among the television households in the United States, and the share is the percentage tuned to a program among those televisions on at the time.

Ratings climbed throughout the evening, starting with a 7.7 for the 7-7:30 p.m. EDT time period and peaking at a 12.0 between 10-10:30 p.m. EDT.

The Indians’ victory over the Mariners got a 42.0 rating and a 61 share in Cleveland and a 37.1 rating and 65 share in Seattle.

The Braves’ pennant-clinching victory over the Reds got a 27.0 rating and 41 share in Atlanta and a 16.4 rating and 31 share in Cincinnati.

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