Of course, this is much easier to say now that they have already done it. I admit I was worried. Before there was always another game, but this time the season could have ended.
The M’s didn’t panic. They played with quiet confidence in the last two games. Pitchers hit their marks and got outs. Fielders nabbed balls and fired to first. Batters got on base. They didn’t play flawless baseball; they just played good baseball. It was enough.
This is not the first time the Mariners came through in the clutch to win a division series that sent them to the AL Championship. In 1995 they beat the Yankees 6-5 when Edgar Martinez hit a two-run double in the bottom of the 11th inning. Then, last year Carlos Guillen laid down a perfect bunt to score Rickey Henderson in the bottom of the ninth in their win over Chicago.
Unfortunately, they were not able to come from behind to win in their two previous AL Championship Series, but this is not the same team. This team has the best leadoff hitter in the league, the RBI leader, the best defense and an improved bullpen. See the Herald article "A Different Team" at: http://www.heraldnet.com/mariners/
Losing Saturday and then coming back should help prepare them for their toughest test—the rematch of last year’s American League Championship Series with the Yankees. Both teams are capable of winning with their backs against the wall, as we have seen this past weekend. Read the prediction I made in my previous article, “Never Been There”, at: http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/seat... (I still think the Mariners are the better team.)
Don’t expect it to be an easy series though. They could get into another do-or-die situation. But if they do, don’t worry. It may be the very thing that will help catapult them past the Yankees and into their very first World Series.
Remember, they are the "comeback crew".
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