Indians Set Mariners Adrift

With gourmet coffee shops on almost every corner, Seattle is recognized as one of the most wired cities in America.

But eventually a caffeine buzz wears off, as does a city’s euphoria over a baseball team that ties a major league record with 116 regular-season victories.

The allegedly unsinkable Mariners are in imminent danger of suffering the same fate as the 1906 Chicago Cubs, whose 116 victories became a moot point when their season ended with a loss to the White Sox in the World Series.

Seattle is one game from being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs after suffering a 17-2 loss at the hands of Cleveland in Game 3 at Jacobs Field.

The Indians grabbed a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five series.

“That was probably the worst game we’ve played all year,” Seattle Manager Lou Piniella said. “Not because they scored 17 runs, but we were not sharp in the field.”

Bartolo Colon, who shut down the Mariners in Game 1 at Safeco Field, will try to clinch the series in a rematch against Seattle ace Freddy Garcia.

Cleveland was in a different world Saturday, setting club postseason records with 17 runs and 19 hits. Shortstop Omar Vizquel went 4-for-6 and set a team postseason record with six RBIs, while rookie left-hander C.C. Sabathia overcame a jittery first inning to win his first playoff start.

The 21-year-old Sabathia, who went six innings, said he hasn’t been this excited since he was a tyke.

“The closest thing is when I was a little kid and my mom would take me to Toys R Us,” he said. “It was like that anxious feeling going into Toys R Us and you can pick out anything you want.”

Juan Gonzalez, Kenny Lofton and Jim Thome each homered for the Indians, who knocked Mariner starter Aaron Sele out after two innings.

Mariner star Bret Boone, who set several offensive records for an American League second baseman and is one of the leading candidates for AL Most Valuable Player, went hitless with four strikeouts, leaving him 1 for 12 in the series. The Nos. 3, 4, and 5 hitters--Boone, Edgar Martinez and John Olerud--are a combined 5 for 32 in the series.

Are those 116 wins meaningless come playoff time?

“It does matter, because it can put a lot of doubts in the minds of the other team,” Vizquel said. “It’s hard to go up against a team with 116 wins and go into their home first. But we’ve got a lot of veteran players here who can settle things down. I’m pretty sure after this win today, there are a lot of doubts in [Seattle’s clubhouse].”

The last time Sele started a game at Jacobs Field, on Aug. 5, the Mariners jumped to a 12-0 lead and led, 14-5, when he was pulled in the seventh. But the Indians scored nine runs in the eighth and ninth innings to tie the game and won, 15-14, in 11 innings.

Sabathia had an inauspicious start, allowing a single to Ichiro Suzuki and double to Mike Cameron. After a one-out intentional walk to Martinez loaded the bases, Sabathia walked Olerud on a 3-and-2 pitch to force in a run. But the 6-foot-7 power pitcher induced both Jay Buhner and Dan Wilson to hit foul pop-ups behind first base, escaping with limited damage to his psyche.

Sabathia eventually settled into a groove, throwing five shutout innings before tiring in the seventh with a 12-1 lead. How did he get rid of the jitters?

“I have no clue,” he said. “I was forced to settle down. There was no place to put any more runners.”

The Indians took a 2-1 lead in the first before Boone made a fine backhanded play on a Travis Fryman shot and rushed a wobbly throw to first for an error. Vizquel soon followed with a bloop double to right, bringing home two runs to make it 4-1.

Piniella had seen enough of Sele, and brought in Paul Abbott to start the third. “We took a shot,” Piniella said. “It didn’t work out.”

Gonzalez took Abbott’s first pitch and deposited it over the left-field wall, igniting a four-run inning that put the Mariners into a deep sleep from which they never awoke. If they don’t wake up today, the Mariners may spend the rest of the winter wondering whether they spent too much energy trying to set a record that doesn’t really matter.

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Paul Sullivan is a reporter for the Chicago Tribune.