Angels Can’t Handle Seattle

Many believe baseball will have some kind of medicinal effect on the nation this week, bringing a sense of normalcy back to a country reeling from last week’s terrorist attacks, but it seemed like it was the other way around Tuesday night.

It was the players who got swept up in the wave of emotion created by a stirring pre-game ceremony in Safeco Field, and the Seattle Mariners rode that crest to a 4-0 victory over the Angels before a flag-waving, USA-chanting sellout crowd of 45,294.

Freddy Garcia threw a complete-game, three-hitter with nine strikeouts to improve to 17-5 and lower his American League-leading earned run average to 2.85, as the Mariners reduced their magic number for clinching the AL West title to one. The right-hander is 5-0 with an 0.44 ERA in five starts against the Angels this season. Ichiro Suzuki had three hits, and Edgar Martinez and John Olerud each hit sacrifice flies in the sixth.

But the story Tuesday night wasn’t so much what happened during the game but before it. The evening began on a somber note, as a Marine Corps color guard marched onto the field to a recording of ‘Amazing Grace,’ and players and coaches lined up on the basepaths.

Most fans stood and waved the small American flags that were passed out at the turnstiles, while some unfurled large flags in sections around the stadium. After a moment of silence to honor of those killed in last week’s terrorist acts, The Gospel Outreach Youth School Choir of Olympia, Wash., sang ‘God Bless America.”

Chants of ‘USA! USA! USA!’ echoed from one end of the stadium to the other, delaying the start of the national anthem. Following the anthem, players remained on the basepaths, and the crowd remained silent until the color guard left the field.

‘It was phenomenal, it was overwhelming,’ said Mariner catcher Dan Wilson, who had an RBI single in the second. ‘Walking out to ‘Amazing Grace,’ I could hardly feel my feet touch the ground. It was pretty emotional to see the color guard marching out and hear the fans chanting. I think our country should be proud seeing what we saw tonight.”

Added Seattle Manager Lou Piniella: ‘It was just a beautiful moment. There was a lot of passion and emotion out there.”

Probably too much for Angel center fielder Darin Erstad, who was the first batter of the game. Garcia started Erstad with three straight balls before coming back with three straight strikes. Really, Erstad didn’t have a chance.

‘That first at-bat I was shaking a little more than normal,’ Erstad said. ‘I still had chills from the pregame. I didn’t have time to regroup. Hearing 40,000 people chant, ‘USA, USA,’ sent chills up my spine. I pride myself on being mentally tough ... but I probably would have struck out anyway.”

Garcia, as he did during an eight-inning, three-hit shutout of the Angels in Anaheim on Sept. 10, had his way with the Angels again, allowing only two runners to reach second base while giving the Mariners their league-leading 12th shutout of the season.

With 105 victories and 17 games left, Seattle has a good chance of breaking the New York Yankees’ AL record of 114 wins, set in 1998. The major league record of 116 wins, set by the 1906 Chicago Cubs, is also within reach.

But first on the Mariners’ docket is the division title, which they will wrap up with one more victory or one more Oakland loss. ‘Hopefully we’ll win [tonight],’ Piniella said. ‘It’s been a long road for us. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

That road got a little longer with the seven-day layoff following last week’s terrorist acts, but as difficult as the past week has been, the Mariners believed it was time to get back to work.

‘We’ve had a week to reflect, to grieve,’ Mariner second baseman Bret Boone said. ‘It’s been a rough week for a lot of people_we’ve had a rough week, America had a rough week, but that’s nothing compared to what the people in New York and Washington have gone through.”