1995 Seattle Mariners season

The 1995 Seattle Mariners season was the 19th in the history of the franchise. The team finished with a regular season record of to win their first American League (AL) West title, after having been down by as many as 13 games in early August. They were tied the California Angels season|California Angels] for first place at the end of the 144-game season. In a one-game tiebreaker, the Mariners defeated the Angels 9–1 to make the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
In the postseason, the Mariners defeated the New York Yankees in the best-of-five AL Division Series after losing the first two games in New York. The series ended on Edgar Martínez' walk-off 11th-inning double. In the AL Championship Series against the favored Cleveland Indians, Seattle won the opener at home and the third game on the road but fell in six games.

Offseason

Notable transactions

October 14, 1994: Alex Diaz was selected off waivers by the Mariners from the Milwaukee Brewers.
November 29: Félix Fermín signed as a free agent with the Mariners.
November 29: Jeff Darwin designated for assignment.
December 19: Luis Sojo signed a one-year contract.
December 21: Jay Buhner re-signed with the Mariners on a three-year contract.
December 21: Eric Anthony was released by the Mariners.

Offseason summary

On November 30, 1994, the Mariners became the first MLB team to publish an official website, called "Seattle Mariners Home Plate".
The start of the 1995 season was delayed by the ongoing players strike, which had ended the 1994 season in August. As the strike continued, the Mariners and all MLB teams began spring training with replacement players. In late March, the Mariners had provisional rosters of replacement players that included a few strikebreaking former MLB players, including Jim Paciorek, Marty Pevey, and Randy McCament. However, the strike ended on April 2, the day before replacement players were scheduled to start the regular season. A shortened 144-game MLB season started on April 26, with the Mariners' Opening Day the following night.

Regular season

Season standings

''Note: Teams played 144 games instead of the normal 162 as a consequence of the 1994–95 strike.
Seattle and California each played 145 games due to the one-game tiebreaker.''

Season summary

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. The Mariners stayed afloat at around.500, and their historic late season comeback tied the California Angels.
The Mariners honored the West Coast Negro Baseball League Seattle Steelheads when they wore 1946 Steelheads uniforms on September 9 against the Kansas City Royals. The Royals wore Kansas City Monarchs uniforms. The Mariners beat the Royals 6–2 at the Kingdome.
Randy Johnson won his first Cy Young Award. The award came at the end of a banner year: Johnson narrowly missed becoming the first AL pitching Triple Crown winner since Detroit's Hal Newhouser in 1945. Johnson's.900 winning percentage broke Ron Guidry's 1978 record, and his strikeouts per nine innings ratio of 12.35 broke Nolan Ryan's single-season record.

Pennant chase

On August 21, the Mariners were 12½ games behind the California Angels. Two weeks later, the lead narrowed to 5½ games, as the Angels went 1–12 while the Mariners were 8–5. After another two weeks, the lead was down to three games, and the teams were even at on the morning of September 21. Seattle led by as many as 3 games. On September 30, with two games left in season, the Mariners only needed one win to clinch their first playoff appearance in franchise history but couldn't hold it, as they lost their final two games at the Texas Rangers. The Angels won their final five games to tie the Mariners at, requiring a one-game playoff for the division title. Also on a five-game winning streak, the New York Yankees secured the new wild card berth at.

Roster

Notable transactions

May 15: Roger Salkeld was traded by the Mariners to the Cincinnati Reds season|Cincinnati Reds] for Tim Belcher.
July 14: Norm Charlton was signed by the Mariners after being released by the Cincinnati Reds
July 31: Ron Villone and Marc Newfield were traded by the Mariners to the San Diego Padres for Andy Benes and a player to be named later. The Padres sent Greg Keagle to the Mariners on September 17.
August 15: The Mariners traded a player to be named later to the Kansas City Royals for Vince Coleman. The Mariners sent Jim Converse to the Royals on August 18.

Draft picks

June 1: 1995 Major League Baseball draft
*Jose Cruz Jr. was drafted in the first round and signed for $1.285 million.
*Shane Monahan was drafted by the Mariners in the second round, and signed on June 27, 1995.
*Brian Fuentes was drafted in the 25th round and signed with the Mariners.
*Juan Pierre was drafted by the Mariners in the 30th round, but did not sign.

Player stats

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
C	Dan Wilson	119	399	111	.278	9	51
1B	Tino Martinez	141	519	152	.293	31	111
2B	Joey Cora	120	427	127	.297	3	39
3B	Mike Blowers	134	439	113	.257	23	96
SS	Luis Sojo	102	339	98	.289	7	39
LF	Vince Coleman	40	162	47	.290	1	9
CF	Ken Griffey Jr.	72	260	67	.258	17	42
RF	Jay Buhner	126	470	123	.262	40	121
DH	Edgar Martínez	145	511	182	.356	29	113

Other batters

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
OF	Alex Diaz	103	270	67	.248	3	27
OF	Rich Amaral	90	230	67	.282	2	19
SS	Félix Fermín	73	200	39	.195	0	15
3B/PH	Doug Strange	74	155	42	.271	2	21
OF	Darren Bragg	52	145	34	.234	3	12
SS	Alex Rodriguez	48	142	33	.232	5	19
LF	Marc Newfield	24	85	16	.188	3	14
C	Chad Kreuter	26	75	17	.227	1	8
LF	Warren Newson	33	72	21	.292	2	6
UT	Chris Widger	23	45	9	.200	1	2
OF	Gary Thurman	13	25	8	.320	0	3
1B	Greg Pirkl	10	17	4	.235	0	0
2B	Arquimedez Pozo	1	1	0	.000	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: GS = Games started; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	GS	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Randy Johnson	30	214	18	2	2.48	294
Tim Belcher	28	179	10	12	4.52	96
Chris Bosio	31	170	10	8	4.92	85
Salomón Torres	13	72	3	8	6.00	45
Andy Benes	12	63	7	2	4.52	45
Bob Wolcott	7	36	3	2	4.42	19
Tim Davis	5	24	2	1	6.38	19

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Bob Wells	30	76	4	3	5.75	38
Dave Fleming	16	48	1	5	7.50	26
Rafael Carmona	15	47	2	4	5.66	28
Bill Krueger	6	20	2	1	5.85	10
Jim Converse	6	11	0	3	7.36	9

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts; SV = Saves

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO	SV
Bobby Ayala	63	71	6	5	4.44	77	19
Jeff Nelson	62	78	7	3	2.17	96	2
Bill Risley	45	60	2	1	3.13	65	1
Norm Charlton	30	47	2	1	1.51	58	14
Lee Guetterman	23	17	0	0	6.88	11	1
Ron Villone	19	19	0	2	7.91	26	0
Steve Frey	13	11	0	3	4.76	7	0
John Cummings	4	5	0	0	11.81	4	0
Scott Ray Davison	3	4	0	0	6.23	3	0
Jim Mecir	2	4	0	0	0.00	3	0
Kevin King	2	3	0	0	12.27	3	0
Tim Harikkala	1	3	0	0	16.20	1	0

Awards and honors

Randy Johnson, American League Cy Young Award winner, AL leader in strikeouts
Edgar Martínez, AL batting champion, Silver Slugger Award
Lou Piniella, Associated Press AL Manager of the Year

In popular culture

The Mariners' ALDS run is the subject of the song, My Oh My, by Seattle-based rapper, Macklemore.
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.
The team's playoff run received a dedicated segment in Jon Bois' docuseries The History of the Seattle Mariners, titled "The Battle for Seattle".