Chuck Finley waited 15 years for this?
He left his wife, two daughters and his Newport Beach home, the Southern California lifestyle he so embraced and the familiarity of a franchise that nurtured him for 14 years, moved into a Cleveland hotel for six months a year, living on room service and bedside chocolates, all so he could experience this?
What a letdown.
Finley got his first taste of the playoffs since 1986 Thursday, and after 14 pitches, he felt like spitting it out. That’s how long it took the Seattle Mariners to score four runs off Finley en route to a 5-1 American League division series Game 2 victory that was essentially over in the time it takes cream to color coffee.
Mike Cameron and Edgar Martinez battered Finley for two-run home runs in the first inning and soft-serving Mariners left-hander Jamie Moyer lulled Indians bats to sleep, giving up one run on five hits in six innings before a pumped-up Safeco Field crowd of 48,052.
Seattle evened the best-of-five series at one game apiece with Game 3 scheduled Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.
“It all happened so quick,” Finley said.. “I was looking forward to this for a long time and I tried to tell myself to relax and enjoy it. But I didn’t relax as much as I could have in the first inning. I was a little overamped.”
So were Mariners bats, which barely moved the needle on the voltmeter in Tuesday’s 5-0 loss to Cleveland in Game 1. But Cameron, a career .059 hitter (1-for-17) against Finley, and Martinez, a career .243 hitter (17-for-70) against Finley, put a charge into the Seattle offense in the first inning.
Ichiro Suzuki opened with a walk and Finley quickly got ahead of Cameron with two strikes. Those who know Finley knew what was coming next: The forkball that made Finley famous, a pitch that looks like a fastball before darting into the dirt and has made batters look silly for 15 years.
Finley, perhaps outguessing himself, went with a fastball, but instead of throwing it at Cameron’s hands, he threw it thigh-high and over the plate.
Cameron belted it over the wall in left for a two-run homer.
“That’s the advantage of speed at first base,” Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. “It’s easy to run on the split-fingered fastball. It’s a little slower and it can bounce in the dirt.” Cameron also thought Suzuki’s speed was a factor in Finley’s pitch selection, but Finley said it wasn’t so.
“I felt it was the right pitch; it was just a bad spot,” said Finley, who entered with a 19-8 career record and 2.81 earned-run average against Seattle. “I always try to establish my fastball in the first inning. I tried to come in on Cameron and left it over the plate.”
Bret Boone followed with a single to center and Martinez hammered Finley’s next pitch, another fastball, over the center-field wall for a two-run homer and a 4-0 lead.
“I thought I made a decent pitch to Edgar and he hit it pretty good,” Finley said. “But he’s so good, he could pretty much put a patch over one eye and hit.”
Finley settled down after Martinez’s homer, retiring the next 10 batters, but Mariners third baseman David Bell’s homer in the fifth gave Seattle a 5-0 lead.
The Indians threatened in the fourth, putting runners on first and second with one out, but Moyer got Ellis Burks to fly to right and struck out Jim Thome with an 85 m.p.h. fastball.
Burks and Thome opened the seventh with singles off Moyer. Seattle reliever Jeff Nelson then walked Travis Fryman to load the bases.
But Nelson got Marty Cordova to bounce into a double play, with Burks scoring, and retired Einar Diaz on a fly ball to shallow center.
The Indians offense barely made a peep the rest of the game.
If the series goes the distance, Finley is scheduled to start Game 5 Monday in Seattle on three days rest.
“I hope I get a chance to redeem myself,” Finley said. “Obviously I was too pumped up with adrenaline.
“I welcome the opportunity to try it again.”
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Mike DiGiovanna covers baseball for the Los Angeles Times, a Tribune newspaper.
