Mariners, Yankees put playoff burden on polished pitchers

GREG JOHNS

Originally published October 17

SEATTLE -- How can the Mariners beat the New York Yankees and unseat the three-time World Series champs?

Simple, really.

Pitching, pitching, pitching.

This delicious American League Championship Series will come down to the same thing as most every playoff series. The men on the mound.

The Mariners appear to match up evenly in pitching matchups with the Yankees in the coming series with the exception of Games 1 and 5 between Aaron Sele vs. Andy Pettitte and a Game 4 duel of Paul Abbott vs. Roger Clemens, who is coming back from a hamstring injury.

Figure Freddy Garcia and Mike Mussina for tremendous pitchers' duels in Games 2 and 6, though Mussina gets the nod in Game 2 with Garcia pitching on just three day's rest.

Give Seattle the edge in Game 3 and a potential Game 7 with Jamie Moyer against Orlando Hernandez, even though El Duque is historically unbeatable in postseason play.

That means Sele and Abbott can swing the series Seattle's way by picking off a victory or two in their games. If that scenario scares you, it's because your short-term memory is filled with the sight of Sele and Abbott getting drilled into submission in the Mariners' 17-2 loss at Cleveland on Saturday.

Sele seems to be the key. The 31-year-old from Paulsbo is 0-3 with a 5.82 ERA against the Yankees in postseason play, having lost twice with Texas and last year with Seattle. He has yet to win in five playoff starts, including Saturday's two-inning debacle at Jacobs Field.

Asked yesterday if he had anything to prove after Saturday's short stint in Cleveland, Sele looked into the crowd of reporters and said: "No. Why?"

The answer, of course, would be that his future in Seattle seems to hinge on these next two starts. After earning $7 million as the Mariners' highest-paid player, Sele becomes a free agent following this season.

Though he is 32-15 in two regular seasons with Seattle, the Mariners might figure that money better spent in pursuit of re-signing second baseman Bret Boone or adding another hitter if Sele seems incapable of being a big-time playoff performer.

The M's are counting on Garcia matching up against Mussina (17-11, 3.15), who shut out Oakland for seven innings in Game 3 to get the Yankees back in contention in that series.

Piniella is taking a risk there, given that Garcia will be one day shy of his normal rest period when he takes the hill tomorrow. But that gamble is outweighed by the fact Piniella wants the chance to use Garcia and Moyer twice in this series.

And if he'd held Garcia back for Game 3 or 4, it would have meant throwing Abbott against Mussina tomorrow and running the chance of never getting a shot at bringing back his best two pitchers in this series.

"Freddy only threw 82 pitches his last start," Piniella noted. "He's a big, strong kid. He'll be ready to go."

He'd better be. If Sele gets beat by Pettitte today, the Mariners won't want to fall behind 0-2 on their home field and then face a three-game swing to Yankee Stadium.

But remember one thing. The Mariners trailed Cleveland 2-1 and New York fell behind Oakland 2-0 in the just-completed division series before roaring back with superior pitching. So if we've learned one thing, it's that neither of these teams will go down easily.

And neither will their pitchers.

Greg Johns can be reached by e-mail at gjohns@juno.com.

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