Mariners Have Open, Shut Case When Anaheim Visits

There are no atmospheric indications it’s pennant time in the closed environs of the Kingdome. There’s no long shadows cast by the early setting sun or an autumnal nip in the air. The only way to know the season was about to end for the Angels was they were playing the Seattle Mariners and Randy Johnson was on the mound.

This is starting to become the official finish for the Angels: sitting in the Kingdome dugout while fireworks explode and fans cheer and the Mariners high-five and celebrate the American League West championship that could have been theirs.

Maybe this time they didn’t cough up huge lead the way they did in 1995. The Angels’ hollow victory this season was that they had to force the Mariners to wait until Sept. 23 to throw their party, that they scared the Mariners into trading away top prospect Jose Cruz Jr. for some relief help.

But the end result, by a 4-3 score this time, was all too familiar. And the Angel goals remain the same.

“They’ve seen the celebrations before,” Manager Terry Collins said. “What we’ve got to know what it takes to get there, to have the celebration be in this clubhouse. We’ve got to have hard work and dedication, tremendous effort. We’ve got to get better, we’ve got to move up, to get to that next level.”

This one looked over as soon as the pitching matchups were set. The Mariners sent the most dominant pitcher in the game to the mound. The Angels countered with Allen Watson, who has offered up the most home-run pitches in the league this year, against a team that, after Jay Buhner’s second-deck shot tonight, has hit more home runs in a season than any team in baseball history (258).

It definitely looked over after the first inning, when the Mariners took a three-run lead. But the Angels gave Seattle everything it could handle. It wasn’t the effort of a team playing not to lose. It was the effort of a team playing not to lose and have a title rubbed in its face.

“Two things you don’t want to do is have teams celebrate against you--especially in your park,” Collins said before the game.

No need to worry about that second part here, 1,000 miles away from Anaheim. But I can’t think of any place worse for the Angels to be than in the Kingdome, before a sellout crowd of 52,854.

When the Angel bus pulled into the Kingdome it’s a wonder they didn’t hop out and help the construction crew building the new stadium across the parking lot. Anything to get out of this place.

Too many bad memories and bad vibes. The Angels spent most of the season talking about how they had put the collapse of 1995 behind them, but when they come here they have to look at that 1995 AL West Champions banner--the one the Angels were just about ready to order themselves--hanging high above left-center field, adorned with a Mariner logo.

If I’m the Angels, I’m pushing hard for a realignment plan that puts the Angels in a separate division from the Mariners. Better yet, in a different league. Maybe even another continent.

Sometimes teams just have another team’s number. Or a building puts a hex on another team. The Mariners only have a one-game lead over the Angels in the season series, but they have won four of the five games played in the Kingdome.

This was the last place Rickey Henderson needed to be. His horrendous slump kept him on the bench the whole weekend in Texas, and Collins expects him to break out of it here, against Johnson?

Batting fifth, Henderson’s three trips to the plate went like this: three strikeouts and a tossout for arguing a called third strike with plate umpire Jim McKean in the seventh inning.

Even the aggressive mentality Collins instilled in the Angels haunted him Tuesday when Jim Edmonds, the tying run, was thrown out trying to take third on a single by Tim Salmon in the eighth inning.

Amazing. Watson hangs with Randy Johnson for his last five innings. The umpire kicks the ball away from Mariner catcher Dan Wilson in the ninth inning and the Angels can’t get the tying any closer to the plate. The Angels score more runs off Johnson than they do against the flammable Mariner bullpen. The Angels out-homer the most prolific home run-hitting team in baseball history thanks to two home runs by Edmonds and one by Gary DiSarcina, who Tuesday night looked more like Roger Maris than Ken Griffey Jr. did. Then they lose by trying to play their own game, hustling.

Don’t blame Collins, whose style of play helped the Angels stay alive in the pennant race until the ninth inning Tuesday night.

Blame the upside-down world of the Kingdome, where the walls are blue and the “sky” is gray, and Angels don’t fly.