Mariners shoulder burden of a spectacular season

SEATTLE -- The Seattle Mariners awoke Monday a little groggy after sipping champagne and found something missing -- 116 wins. They disappeared from the standings overnight.

History, for the moment, has been put on hold.

Right now, baseball's best team during the regular season is 0-0, just like everyone else.

"The season's not over for us yet," outfielder Mike Cameron said Sunday. "There's going to be no luck. None of that stuff."

While running away from rest of the AL this season, the Mariners smashed countless club, league and personal records and dominated the league like no team before them.

But unless they can beat the Cleveland Indians three times in the next week, none of it will matter.

"Seattle has all the pressure on them," Indians reliever Paul Shuey said.

The Mariners will be the team to beat when it opens its best-of-five division series against the Indians today at Safeco Field.

That's the price you pay when your only competition during the regular season came from the 1906 Chicago Cubs and 1998 New York Yankees. The Mariners missed a chance to pass the Cubs' single-season wins record when they lost to the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Sunday, leaving them tied at 116.

No. 117 was about the only thing to elude Seattle, which has its sights on a first World Series title instead.

"We all know we have a long way to go and everybody is starting even again," Mariners second baseman Bret Boone said. "But we're a veteran club and we know what we have to do now."

Freddy Garcia, 18-6 during the regular season, will start for the Mariners against Cleveland's Bartolo Colon, who went 14-12 and lost twice to Seattle this year.

Following an off-day Wednesday, the series resumes Thursday and Game 3 is Saturday at Jacobs Field. Game 4 -- if necessary -- will be in Cleveland on Oct. 14, and if needed, Game 5 will be back in Seattle on Oct. 15.

If their seven regular-season matchups were any indication, this could be a beauty.

The Mariners went 5-2 against Cleveland, but four of the games were decided by one run and two went to extra innings.

One game was unforgettable.

On Aug. 5 at the Jake, the Indians staged the biggest comeback in 76 years, rallying from 12 runs down to win 15-14 in 11 innings. Cleveland trailed 12-0 after three innings and was down 14-2 in the seventh.

The stunning win helped turn Cleveland's season around and provided a springboard to its sixth AL Central title in seven years. For the Mariners, it was just the strangest of their 46 losses.