Drayer: Joey Cora, Mike Blowers remember Mariners’ Game 5 ALDS win

With baseball season delayed for the foreseeable future, 710 ESPN Seattle will be broadcasting classic Mariners games throughout the spring. Tonight is what is almost undoubtedly considered the most memorable game in team history as the Mariners face the Yankees in the decisive Game 5 of the 1995 American League Division Series at the Kingdome. Here’s Shannon Drayer’s preview of tonight’s airing.

ALDS Game 5: Sunday, Oct. 8, 1995

If you were there, chances are you bought the entire block of tickets and were there the previous two nights. Chances are you got little sleep the night before as the excitement of a Game 5 kept you up all of whatever remained of the night with a nervous energy.

Chances are you had a sore throat as you had been standing and cheering for 18 innings straight, your ears probably still ringing. No matter. You had another nine innings in you. Eleven, if necessary.

Maybe you parked up the hill above the International District and stopped at Uwajimaya to get something to take into the park for dinner. Maybe you had your homemade sign tucked under your arm and carried your “Refuse to Lose” placard that came with the morning paper in your other hand. You were ready for whatever ensued.

The Mariners had battled back from an 2-0 deficit to the Yankees to face the deciding Game 5 on their turf, the old 2-3 format of the Division Series playing to their advantage. Twenty hours earlier, the Mariners rallied from being down 5-0, with Edgar Martinez putting on a show that perhaps even he couldn’t believe. A three-run home run cut the initial deficit to two runs, and an eighth-inning grand slam (complete with an uncharacteristic show of emotion as he rounded the bases) put it away.

Unlike two of their previous three must-win games, Randy Johnson would not be on the hill to start the game for the Mariners. Instead the ball was handed to Andy Benes, who was acquired mid-season. On the other side, Cy Young Award winner David Cone, who the Mariners had scored four runs off of in Game 1.

The M’s would be the first to break through in this game with a most unlikely home run.

“It seems like you go back and replay the game, it was 0-0 and everybody was tense,” remembered Joey Cora during an interview Tuesday with 710 ESPN Seattle’s Tom, Jake and Stacy. “And then I hit a home run? Little Joey can hit a home run! We got to go.”

And go they did, putting up 15 hits. But unlike the previous two games, the Mariners struggled to come up with the big hit. The offense would need help hanging around until Edgar could come through once more. That required a major assist from the manager.

“Maybe one of the things that people don’t talk about with that game is the way that Lou (Piniella) managed it,” said Mike Blowers. “We’re towards the end of the game, Dan Wilson is not in the lineup anymore. Tino Martinez is out of the game. Lou did everything he possibly could to make that happen. Watching that game and watching all the little things that Lou was doing along the way and taking chances and risks where in today’s world with the analytics, I can’t even imagine what people would think about it. But that was just Lou. It was pretty awesome to watch that because I think he did a lot of things in that game that most wouldn’t, but that’s the reason why he was the best manager I ever played for.”

LINEUPS!

Yankees

Wade Boggs, 3B
Bernie Williams, CF
Paul O’Neill, RF
Rubén Sierra, DH
Don Mattingly, 1B
Dion James, LF
Mike Stanley, C
Tony Fernández, SS
Randy Velarde, 2B

David Cone, P

Mariners

Vince Coleman, LF
Joey Cora, 2B
Ken Griffey Jr., CF
Edgar Martinez, DH
Tino Martinez, DH
Jay Buhner, RF
Luis Sojo, SS
Dan Wilson, C
Mike Blowers, 3B

Andy Benes, P

It’s now considered one of MLB’s 20 greatest games, according to the MLB Network, and one that fans of either team will never forget.

“New Yorkers remember the ’95 series. Even though they won the (World) Series after (in 1996), that’s the one they lost,” Cora said.

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