Mudville mania

The Seattle Mariners, hot off their triumphs in the division and league championships, faced a determined squad from the northern shores of Montreal in this year's World Series. Both teams, new to the October Classic, faced hosts of questions. Would Ken Griffey, Jr. homer before Larry Walker? Would Felipe Alou or Lou Piniella be thrown out first? Would the unsung hero be Sean Berry or Mike Blowers?

Game One brought its share of answers. Ace met ace, as Piniella sent Randy Johnson to face Jeff Fassero. Seattle went up 2-0 early on a Tino Martinez bunt that scored Griffey, followed by an Omar Vizquel bunt to bring home Jay Buhner. Both aces kept the ball down and the score level until Mike Lansing's solo shot made it 2-1 in the bottom of the fifth. In the top of the seventh, Buhner doubled off the top of the wall, and Marquis Grissom's bullet from left field picked Griffey off third. Blowers smashed a two-run dinger in the top of the eighth, and Seattle led 4-1. Blowers' diving catch at third in the bottom of the eighth shut down an Expo rally, and Dwayne Henry closed out the ninth.

In Game Two, Erik Hanson was paired with Dennis Martinez, who kept Mariner bats silent until the top of the third, when the Mariner pitcher scored on a Griffey double. Wil Cordero's home run tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of that inning, but Seattle bounced back with a solo shot in the 4th and a run-scoring single in the 5th, both by Dave Valle. After a Buhner triple knocked Griffey home, Valle bunted to score The Bone, and the Mariners enjoyed a 5-1 lead. They never looked back behind Hanson's strong pitching, Hanson giving up only one earned run in twenty playoff innings.

Alou made a bold but costly move in Game Three, bringing Jeff Fassero to the mound again on only two days' rest. Delino Deshields led off the game with an inside-the-park home run, but his spark couldn't kindle an Expo flame, and the Mariners tore up the baseball, scoring seven runs off Fassero in the first and finishing the game up 12-1. Buhner was 4-5 with two homers, and Mike Blowers went 2-3 with a grand slam in the 1st. Chris Bosio pitched eight solid innings for the win.

On their last legs, the Expos again attempted to stop the Mariner onslaught. Alou, wary of his previous gamble, still decided to send Dennis Martinez to face Dave Fleming, called in because Randy Johnson suffered from stomach cramps. It looked like Montreal was about to find its offensive rhythm, as Larry Walker ballooned a two-run home run into upper deck off an 0-2 fastball in the first. The Mariners, though, responded with their trademark "small ball," scoring five runs in the bottom of the 1st off of eight base hits. Jeff Shaw tried to stanch the bleeding, but served up a three-run homer to Tino Martinez in the fifth. Tim Leary replaced Fleming in the sixth, and Moises Alou blasted a 440-foot bomb to left. It would be the last hurrah for the Expos, who lost 8-3 and were swept out of their first Series in franchise history by the newly-crowned World Champion Seattle Mariners.