1995 Seattle Mariners season

The Seattle Mariners' 1995 season was the 19th in the history of the franchise. The team finished with a regular season record of 79–66 (.545) to win their first American League West title. They had tied the California Angels for first place, and in the one-game tiebreaker, the Mariners defeated the Angels 9–1 to make the postseason for the first time in franchise history.[1][2]

1995 Seattle Mariners
American League West champions
Major League affiliations
Location
Results
Record79–66 (.545)
Divisional place1st
Other information
Owner(s)Nintendo of America
(represented by John Ellis)
General manager(s)Woody Woodward
Manager(s)Lou Piniella
Local televisionKIRO-TV 7
Prime Sports NW
Local radioKIRO 710 AM
(Dave Niehaus, Rick Rizzs,
Chip Caray, Ron Fairly)
< Previous season     Next season >

In the postseason, the Mariners defeated the New York Yankees in the best-of-five American League Division Series after losing the first two games in New York, a series notable for Edgar Martínez' walk-off 11th-inning double in the fifth game. In the League Championship Series with the favored Cleveland Indians, Seattle won the opener at home and the third game on the road,[3] but fell in six games.[4]

Offseason

Regular season
  • Ken Griffey, Jr. suffered a severe left wrist injury on May 26 while making a catch at the wall that sidelined him until mid-August.[9][10][11] The M's stayed afloat at around .500, and their historic late season comeback tied the California Angels.[12]
  • The Mariners honored the West Coast Negro Baseball League Seattle Steelheads when they wore 1946 Steelheads uniforms on September 9, 1995, at home against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals wore Kansas City Monarchs uniforms.[13] The Mariners beat the Royals 6 to 2 in front of 39,157 fans at the Kingdome.[14]
  • Randy Johnson won the Cy Young Award. The award came at the end of a banner year. Johnson (18-2, 2.48 ERA, 294 strikeouts) narrowly missed becoming the first AL Triple Crown pitcher (leading the league in wins, ERA, and strikeouts) since Detroit's Hal Newhouser accomplished the feat in 1945.[15] His .900 winning percentage broke Ron Guidry's 1978 record, and his strikeouts per nine innings ratio of 12.35 broke the record held by Nolan Ryan.[15]

Opening Day Lineup

Roster
1995 Seattle Mariners
Roster
Pitchers
  • 43 Jeff Nelson
 Catchers

Infielders

 Outfielders
  • 24 Ken Griffey, Jr.
 Manager

Coaches

Notable transactions

Draft Picks

Pennant chase

On the morning of August 21, the Mariners (53–53 (.500)) were 12½ games behind the Angels (66–41 (.617)).[23] Two weeks later, the lead was down to 5½ games, as the Angels went 1–12 while the M's were 8–5. After another two weeks, the lead was down to three games, and the teams were even at 72–63 (.533) on the morning of September 21. Seattle led by as many as three games, but couldn't hold it, dropping their final two games at Texas; the Angels won their final five games to tie the Mariners at 78–66 (.542), requiring a one-game playoff for the division title.[24] Also on a five-game winning streak, the Yankees secured the new wild card berth at 79–65 (.549).[25]

Season standings
AL West W L Pct. GB Home Road
Seattle Mariners 7966 0.545 — 46–27 33–39
California Angels 7867 0.538 1 39–33 39–34
Texas Rangers 7470 0.514 4½ 41–31 33–39
Oakland Athletics 6777 0.465 11½ 38–34 29–43

Note: Teams played 144 games instead of the normal 162 as a consequence of the 1994 strike.
          Seattle and California each played 145 games due to the one-game tiebreaker.

Record vs. opponents
1995 American League Records

Sources:
Team BAL BOS CAL CWS CLE DET KC MIL MIN NYY OAK SEA TEX TOR
Baltimore —4–99–46–12–108–54–57–53–66–75–76–74–17–6
Boston 9–4—11–35–36–78–53–28–45–45–88–47–53–48–5
California 4–93–11—10–23–26–25–75–28–57–56–77–66–78–2
Chicago 1–63–52–10—5–88–48–56–710–33–2–17–54–95–76–5
Cleveland 10–27–62–38–5—10–311–19–49–46–67–05–46–310–3
Detroit 5–85–82–64–83–10—3–48–57–55–82–35–54–87–6
Kansas City 5–42–37–55–81–114–3—10–26–73–75–87–58–67–5
Milwaukee 5–74–82–57–64–95–82–10—9–45–67–23–25–77–5
Minnesota 6–34–55–83–104–95–77–64–9—3–45–74–85–81–4
New York 7–68–55–72–3–16–68–57–36–54–3—4–94–96–312–1
Oakland 7–54–87–65–70–73–28–52–77–59–4—7–65–83–7
Seattle 7–65–76–79–44–55–55–72–38–49–46–7—10–33–4
Texas 1–44–37–67–53–68–46–87–58–53–68–53–10—9–3
Toronto 6–75–82–85–63–106–75–75–74–11–127–34–33–9—

Game log

Regular season
1995 game log: 79–66 (Home: 46–27; Away: 33–39)
Legend:           = Win           = Loss           = Postponement
Bold = Mariners team member

Postseason
1995 Postseason game log (5–6) (Home: 4–2; Away: 1–4)
American League Division Series: 3–2 (Home: 3–0; Away 0–2)
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveStadiumAttendanceRecord
1October 3@ Yankees6–9Yankee Stadium0–1
2October 4@ Yankees5–7 (15)Yankee Stadium0–2
3October 6Yankees7–4Kingdome1–2
4October 7Yankees11–8Kingdome2–2
5October 8Yankees6–5 (11)Kingdome3–2
American League Championship Series: 2–4 (Home: 1–2; Away 1–2)
#DateOpponentScoreWinLossSaveStadiumAttendanceRecord
1October 10Indians3–2Kingdome1–0
2October 11Indians5–2Kingdome1–1
3October 13@ Indians5–2 (11)Jacobs Field2–1
4October 14@ Indians7–0Jacobs Field2–2
5October 15@ Indians2–3Jacobs Field2–3
6October 17Indians4–0Kingdome2–4

Player stats
= Indicates team leader

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
CDan Wilson119399111.278951
1BTino Martinez141519152.29331111
2BJoey Cora120427127.297339
3BMike Blowers134439113.2572396
SSLuis Sojo10233998.289739
LFVince Coleman4016247.29019
CFKen Griffey, Jr.7226067.2581742
RFJay Buhner126470123.26240121
DHEdgar Martínez145511182.35629113

Other batters
Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
OFAlex Diaz10327067.248327
OFRich Amaral9023067.282219
SSFélix Fermín7320039.195015
OFDarren Bragg5214534.234312
3B/PHDoug Strange7415542.271221
SSAlex Rodriguez4814233.232519

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: GS = Games Started; IP = Innings Pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned Run Average; SO = Strike Outs

Player GS IP W L ERA SO
Randy Johnson30214.11822.48294
Tim Belcher28179.110124.5296
Chris Bosio31170.01084.9285
Salomón Torres1372.0386.0045
Andy Benes1263.0724.5245

Relief pitchers
Player G IP W L ERA SO S
Norm Charlton3047.2211.515814
Bill Risley4560.1213.13651
Bob Wells3076.2435.75380
Jeff Nelson6278.2732.17962
Bobby Ayala6371.0654.447719

ALDS
Main article: 1995 American League Division Series
GameScoreDate
1Seattle 6, New York 9October 3, 1995
2Seattle 5, New York 7October 4, 1995
3New York 4, Seattle 7October 6, 1995
4New York 8, Seattle 11October 7, 1995
5New York 5, Seattle 6October 8, 1995

ALCS
Main article: 1995 American League Championship Series
GameScoreDate
1Cleveland 2, Seattle 3October 10, 1995
2Cleveland 5, Seattle 2October 11, 1995
3Seattle 5, Cleveland 2October 13, 1995
4Seattle 0, Cleveland 7October 14, 1995
5Seattle 2, Cleveland 3October 15, 1995
6Cleveland 4, Seattle 0October 17, 1995

Awards and honors

The Mariners' ALDS run is the subject of the song, My Oh My, by Seattle-based rapper, Macklemore.[26]

Chicago-based band Coping has a song titled "'95 Mariners."

In July 2019, the MLB Network released MLB Network Presents: The 1995 Mariners, Saving Baseball in Seattle[27]

See also

Farm system
See also: Minor League Baseball
Level Team League Manager
AAA Tacoma Rainiers Pacific Coast League Steve Smith
AA Port City Roosters Southern League Dave Myers
A Riverside Pilots California League Dave Brundage
A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Midwest League Mike Goff
A-Short Season Everett AquaSox Northwest League Orlando Gómez
Rookie AZL Mariners Arizona League Tom LeVasseur
Source[28]

References
  1. LaRue, Larry (October 3, 1995). "My, oh my, Mariners win!". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). (Tacoma News Tribune). p. 1B.
  2. "Mariners Postseason Results". MLB.com. Retrieved August 10, 2011.
  3. LaRue, Larry (October 14, 1995). "Bad to the Bone". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). McClatchy News Service. p. 1B.
  4. LaRue, Larry (October 18, 1995). "Shipwrecked: Mariners lose 4-0". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). McClatchy News Service. p. 1B.
  5. Alex Diaz at Baseball-Reference
  6. Félix Fermín at Baseball-Reference
  7. Jay Buhner at Baseball-Reference
  8. Eric Anthony at Baseball-Reference
  9. "M's win 8-3, but lose Griffey". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. May 27, 1995. p. 3B.
  10. Street, Jim (August 15, 1995). "Griffey expected in lineup". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (Seattle Post Intelligencer). p. C1.
  11. "Junior to rejoin M's". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). wire services. August 15, 1995. p. 1B.
  12. "The Ballplayers – Ken Griffey, Jr | BaseballLibrary.com". Archived from the original on December 14, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2012.
  13. Anderson, Lenny (April 14, 1995). "Negro League Seattle Steelheads Gone, But Not Forgotten". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
  14. "September 9, 1995 Kansas City Royals at Seattle Mariners Box Score and Play by Play". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 20, 2009.
  15. "The Ballplayers – Randy Johnson | BaseballLibrary.com". Archived from the original on February 9, 2008. Retrieved August 12, 2008.
  16. Tim Belcher at Baseball-Reference
  17. Norm Charlton at Baseball-Reference
  18. Marc Newfield at Baseball-Reference
  19. "M's acquire Coleman, send Rodriguez back to Tacoma". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. August 16, 1995. p. 3B.
  20. Vince Coleman at Baseball-Reference
  21. Shane Monahan at Baseball-Reference
  22. Juan Pierre at Baseball-Reference
  23. "Standings". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). August 21, 1995. p. 3B.
  24. "M's, Angels go for broke". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). Associated Press. October 2, 1995. p. 1B.
  25. "Standings". Lewiston Morning Tribune. (Idaho). October 2, 1995. p. 3B.
  26. "Thinking about Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' rap tribute to Dave Niehaus,". The Seattle Times. January 4, 2011. Retrieved April 4, 2016.
  27. "MLB Network to air documentary about 1995 Mariners, the team that 'saved' baseball in Seattle". CBSSports.com. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  28. Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, ed., The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball, 2nd and 3rd editions. Durham, North Carolina: Baseball America, 1997 and 2007
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