Angels Relive Their Nightmare

Tim Salmon, Jim Edmonds, Garret Anderson, Gary DiSarcina, Tony Phillips and the rest of the Anaheim gang returned to that ancient Angel burial ground known as the Kingdome, where the ashes of their 1995 pennant hopes were scattered unceremoniously over the turf.

And like a recurring nightmare, the Seattle Mariners put another promising Angel season to rest Tuesday night, clinching the American League West championship with a thrilling 4-3 victory before a sometimes-deafening crowd of 52,884.

Mariner right fielder Jay Buhner keyed a four-run first inning with a three-run homer, and Seattle ace Randy Johnson gutted out an eight-inning, three-run, 11-strikeout, 143-pitch performance to improve to 19-4.

Heathcliff Slocumb, carrying the tattered banner of a beleaguered Mariner bullpen that had blown 25 save opportunities this season, restored some shine to the relief corps by striking out pinch-hitter Jack Howell with the tying run on second to end the game.

Fireworks erupted inside the Kingdome, and the Mariners gathered around second base hugging each other. Many Angels sat in the dugout and stared out blankly, absorbing the scene for several minutes before filing back to their clubhouse.

It was the Mariners’ second division title in their 21-year history and second in the past three years. It also marked the third consecutive season in which the Angels endured a division-clinching celebration.

The Mariners whipped the Angels, 9-1, in the Kingdome in a memorable one-game playoff to determine the West 1995 champion and the Angels were in Texas last season when the Rangers clinched the West title.

“It’s important to realize what you’re missing out on, how close you got,” said Salmon, who remained for the celebration. “You see that excitement, and it helps you develop the passion to get to that level. It kind of finalizes the season for us too.”

The Angels actually outhit the Mariners, 9-7, Tuesday night. They also outhomered them, 3-1, and outplayed them defensively. But while Seattle players sprayed champagne all over each other in their clubhouse, the Angels were licking a major self-inflicted wound.

You knew Johnson was tiring in the eighth when DiSarcina, the Angels’ No. 9 hitter who hadn’t homered since May 23, lined a slider over the left-field wall to pull the Angels to within 4-3.

Edmonds, who homered twice against Johnson, walked with one out and tried to take third on Salmon’s single to left. But Mariner outfielder Roberto Kelly fired a one-hop throw to Andy Sheets, who applied the tag to Edmonds for the second out. Johnson, reaching back for his 143rd pitch of the game, threw a slider by Dave Hollins to end the inning.

“I was just trying to surprise him,” Edmonds said of Kelly. “He put his head down to field the ball and slowed down. I was running hard all the way and thought it was a decent play at the time, but it wasn’t.”

Orlando Palmeiro, who replaced Rickey Henderson after Henderson was ejected in the seventh for arguing a third strike, singled to open the ninth off Slocumb.

But the right-hander, acquired from the Boston Red Sox in a July 31 trade, got Anderson to fly out, struck out Luis Alicea and then struck out Howell swinging at a full-count forkball.

Edmonds’ homer to left-center in the first gave the Angels a 1-0 lead, but the Mariners roared back in the first with four runs, three on a Buhner bomb, a homer into the second deck in left off Angel starter Allen Watson that traveled an estimated 484 feet.

But Watson settled down, holding the Mariners scoreless over the next five innings. Still, the Angels came up short.

“We lost [the division] in August, not tonight,” Edmonds said. “We lost when we went from one game up to seven games back. Tonight, we were just fighting to stave off elimination. What was Seattle going to do, lose five in a row? I doubt it.”