The game was necessary after both teams finished the strike-shortened 144-game season with identical records of 78–66 (.542).[3][4] Scoreless until the fifth inning, Seattle held a slim 1–0 lead at the seventh-inning stretch. The Mariners then broke it open and won 9–1 to secure the franchise's first postseason berth.[1][2] It was counted as the 145th regular season game for both teams, with all the events in the game added to regular season statistics.
On August 3, the Angels were 56–33 (.629), 11 games ahead of the second place Texas Rangers,[5] and 13 ahead of the third-place Mariners, at 43–46 (.483).[6][7] By the end of the month, the Angels (67–50 (.573)) were on a six-game losing streak and their lead was trimmed to 7+1⁄2 games over both Texas and Seattle.[8][9] On September 21, the Angels lost their seventh-straight and the Mariners pulled even at 72–63 (.533), with Texas four games behind.[10][11] Five days later, Seattle had won its seventh straight and built a three-game lead with five to go.[12][13] They were then shut out by the Angels.[14][15] The Mariners won the first two games at Texas to clinch at least a tie with two remaining,[16] but lost the last two while the Angels swept the Oakland Athletics to finish on a five-game winning streak.[3][17]
Both teams entered the tiebreaker with long histories of frustration and disappointment. California had previously won three AL West Division titles (1979, 1982, and 1986), but never advanced to the World Series.[18] In particular, the Angels lost a 2–0 series lead in the then-best-of-five 1982 ALCS to the Milwaukee Brewers,[19] and were one strike away from defeating the Boston Red Sox in Game 5 of the 1986 ALCS but ended up losing that game and the next two to lose the best-of-seven series that they had led 3–1.[20] They had not returned to the postseason since the 1986 loss.[18]
Seattle, on the other hand, had only had two winning seasons since the franchise began play in 1977 (1991 and 1993), and had never been close to the postseason.[21] The team had gone through three ownership changes in its first 15 years, its most recent coming in 1992 when a consortium led by Hiroshi Yamauchi bought the team from Jeff Smulyan,[22] who had threatened to relocate the team as a consequence of its losing ways.
As a consequence of the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike, the 1995 season started on April 25, and was shortened to 144 games instead of the normal 162. California took an early lead in the AL West standings and traded first place with the Texas Rangers through May and June.[23] The Angels took the lead on July 2, and held on to that lead throughout the rest of July and all of August. Seattle, meanwhile, spent most of June through August in third or fourth place. They bottomed out on August 2, thirteen games out of first place and three games under .500.[6]
The Angels' fortunes began to change when they were swept by the Boston Red Sox from August 21–23, then after winning one game, went into a 9-game losing streak beginning August 25. Seattle had an August record of 16–13 (.552), while California had an August record of 13–17 (.433).[6][23] Seattle took second place on September 2, with Texas in a losing streak it never recovered from.[5]
Then in September, California went into a second 9-game skid from September 13–23, allowing Seattle to take first place on September 22 in the middle of their own 7-game winning streak. California sank to three games behind with five games left in the season, but won all five,[23]— a shutout of Seattle in the Kingdome followed by a four-game sweep of the Oakland Athletics[24]—while Seattle lost their last two at Texas,[6] forcing the tiebreaker.
Seattle received home field advantage for the tiebreaker by winning a coin toss late in the season (done in the event of multiple ties for the division or Wild Card), which was the format used for tiebreakers until 2009 as opposed to head-to-head matchups.[25]
Line score and summary
As per normal MLB practice at the time,[26] the home team for this game was determined by a series of coin tosses held on September 18 to determine home teams for all potential one-game tiebreakers.[27] All statistics compiled during the game were added to each player's and/or team's regular season statistics.[28] The game was nationally televised on ESPN with Jon Miller and Joe Morgan making the call.[29]
The first six innings of the game were largely a pitchers' duel between Seattle aceRandy Johnson and California's Mark Langston, the Mariners' former ace who was traded to the Montreal Expos for Johnson in 1989.[30] Seattle put runners in scoring position in the first and fifth innings, but only scored one run in the fifth when Dan Wilson scored on a single by Vince Coleman.[31] Johnson was perfect until the sixth inning, when Rex Hudler singled[30] but was stranded at second base.[31]
Now trailing by five runs, the Angels threatened again in the eighth inning with runners on second and third, but Hudler grounded out to end the threat.[31] In the bottom of the eighth, the Mariners again had the bases loaded when Tino Martinez singled to score Edgar Martínez, followed by a Dan Wilson double that scored Jay Buhner and Blowers, and finally a sacrifice flydouble play hit by Cora that scored Tino Martinez, but got Wilson thrown out at third.[31]Tony Phillips led off the ninth for the Angels with a home run to avoid a shutout, but Johnson retired the next three Angels hitters[31] to record his sixth complete game and 18th win of the season.[32]
Impact
The Angels' defeat in the tiebreaker marked a continuation of the team's struggles at the time. It was the closest the Angels came to the postseason during their playoff drought that lasted from 1987 through 2001. They would return to the playoffs in 2002, and win their only World Series that year.[18]
The game marked the beginning of the most successful era in Seattle franchise history, as they would go on to win AL West Division championships again in 1997 and 2001 (with the latter seeing Seattle tie the Major League record with 116 wins), and an AL Wild Card berth in 2000.[21] However, they failed to reach the World Series each time[21] and remain the only MLB franchise to never reach the Fall Classic.[37]
Off the field, the Mariners' AL West championship as well as its memorable run in the postseason served as a catalyst for public funding for a new ballpark. Less than two weeks before the tiebreaker, the residents of King County, Washington (whose county seat is Seattle) voted against a sales tax increase to fund a new stadium,[38] but shortly after their ALDS victory, the Washington State Legislature reconvened and approved a separate funding package for a new stadium. The new stadium, now called T-Mobile Park, opened in July 1999.