BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : For Indians, the Dance Goes On : AL championship: A 4-0 win over Mariners clinches title and puts them in their first World Series since 1954.

By MIKE DiGIOVANNA

Oct. 18, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

SEATTLE —

Cleveland pitcher Dennis Martinez had waited 19 years for this moment, but that was nothing compared to long-suffering Indian fans, who have endured 41 years of October emptiness, pining for the day another American League pennant would be whipped by the winds off Lake Erie.

Thanks to the crafty right arm of the aging Martinez and the young, spry legs of center fielder Kenny Lofton, both of those excruciating waits came to an end Tuesday night.

Martinez pulled the magic carpet from under the Seattle Mariners’ feet with seven innings of shutout ball, and Lofton caught the Mariners flat-footed, scoring from second on a passed ball to highlight the Indians’ 4-0, pennant-clinching victory in Game 6 of the American League championship series.

The 40-year-old Martinez hushed the Kingdome crowd of 58,489, put a final muzzle on Mariner bats and outdueled Seattle’s 6-foot-10 ace, the seemingly invincible Randy Johnson, to win the first postseason game of his 19-year career.

An admitted alcoholic in the early 1980s but one of baseball’s most consistent pitchers since 1986, Martinez gave up only four hits, struck out three and kept the Mariners guessing all night with a variety of breaking balls and a sprinkling of change-ups.

Johnson, who said last week that he felt “the entire weight of Washington” on his shoulders, who was the winning pitcher in three post-season games the Mariners had to win to keep their season alive, finally succumbed to fatigue, giving up eight hits in 7 1/3 innings for his first loss since Aug. 1.

Johnson said he was “gassed,” but Martinez, who has torn cartilage in his left knee and a sore right elbow, couldn’t have felt more pumped.

“Right now, I feel taller than Randy,” Martinez said. “After all I’ve been through in my life, after all the struggles, this was the game I was looking for. I finally did something we can all remember and gave the people of Cleveland something they’ve waited a long time for. Now, I want to win the World Series.”

The Indians will open the World Series on Saturday in Atlanta, with championship series most valuable player Orel Hershiser probably getting the start against the Braves’ ace, Greg Maddux, in Game 1. Despite concern that the expanded playoff format might lead to early-round upsets, the teams with the best records in both leagues advanced to the World Series.

It will be the Indians’ first World Series appearance since 1954, when Cleveland was swept by the New York Giants. The Indians last won the World Series in 1948, over the Boston Braves.

“I had to pinch myself to make sure this was the Cleveland Indians and I was Mike Hargrove,” said the Cleveland manager, who played for the Indians for seven years. “There was a little bit of disbelief. I asked myself, ‘Can this really be happening?’ ”

The Mariners were asking themselves the same question in the eighth inning, when a 1-0 Cleveland lead suddenly became 3-0, virtually ending the Mariners’ improbable late-season run through the playoffs.

With pinch-runner Ruben Amaro on third and Lofton on second and none out, Johnson threw a low fastball that tailed away from catcher Dan Wilson, bounced in the dirt and squirted toward the Indian dugout.

Amaro scored easily from third to make it 2-0, and Johnson stood in front of the plate, disgusted with himself for the pitch. But as the Big Unit blew a fuse, Lofton flew around third and scored, sliding in well before the stunned Johnson could even come close to making a tag.

“I wasn’t even going to score, I was just trying to run real hard and bluff,” said Lofton, whose RBI single in the fifth inning gave Cleveland a 1-0 lead. “But they never reacted, so I just kept running.”

Hargrove felt the play changed the entire complexion of the game. With Martinez pitching so well and the league’s best bullpen backing him up, a three-run lead that late in the game would be almost impossible to overcome, even for the team with the late-game resume of the Mariners.

“Like everyone else, I didn’t even realize he was doing it until he slid into home,” Hargrove said. “There were a lot of big plays and pitches in this game, but Kenny scoring from second was the biggest. It seemed to pump us up and take the wind out of their sails.”

Two batters later, Carlos Baerga, who had three hits, sent the remnants of a Johnson fastball over the right-center-field fence for a home run and a 4-0 lead. Seattle Manager Lou Piniella came to the mound to pull his ace, and Johnson left to a rousing standing ovation.

The Mariners later showed appreciation for their fans by tossing out hats and game jerseys to those who stayed after the game, and both Piniella and center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. went to the Indian clubhouse to offer congratulations.

“Randy gets tougher and tougher as the game goes on and you don’t score, but he got tired tonight,” Baerga said. “He’s pitched, what, six times in the last two weeks? He’s human.”

The Indian starting pitchers have been almost super-human in the postseason. Atlanta has the best starting rotation in baseball, but the Cleveland foursome of Martinez, Hershiser, Charles Nagy and Ken Hill combined for a 6-1 record and 1.29 earned-run average in the playoffs.

Cleveland held a potent Mariner lineup to a .184 average and a record low of 12 runs for a six-game championship series. The Indians didn’t exactly rip the ball either, batting .257 and scoring only 23 runs, meaning both teams combined for a record-low 35 runs.

Hargrove breathed a sigh of relief when it was finally over. The Indians have been favored to win the pennant since the start of spring training, and with a World Series berth finally secured, he admitted the pressure was off.

“But I fully expect it to come back in the World Series,” he said. “If the pressure is any more intense than it was tonight, I’m not sure I want any part of it.”

Indian fans do.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

World Series at a Glance

All Times Pacific

SATURDAY

* Cleveland at Atlanta, 4:20 p.m.

SUNDAY

* Cleveland at Atlanta, 4:20 p.m.

TUESDAY

* Atlanta at Cleveland, 5:20 p.m.

OCT. 25

* Atlanta at Cleveland, 5:20 p.m.