The New York Yankees beat the Seattle Mariners four games to one in the 2001 ALCS, clinching their fourth straight pennant with a 12-3 win at Yankee Stadium on October 22, 2001. Andy Pettitte won ALCS MVP, and Alfonso Soriano's Game 4 walk-off homer finished off a 116-win team.
A hundred and sixteen wins. That's what Seattle brought into this series. And the Yankees beat them twice in their own park before the Mariners ever figured out what hit them.
The Best Regular Season Ever, More or Less
The 2001 Mariners went 116-46, tying the 1906 Cubs for the most wins in major league history and breaking the AL record the '98 Yankees had set three years earlier. (I'll admit that part stung a little.) Lou Piniella, the old Yankee, was running the show, and they'd survived Cleveland in five games in the ALDS.
The 2001 Yankees won 95. They'd also dropped the first two games of their ALDS at home to Oakland and needed Jeter's flip to crawl back and win in five.
And this was New York six weeks after September 11. Nobody in the Bronx needed a reason to care about October. Everybody had one anyway.
Games 1 and 2: Stealing Safeco
Pettitte took the ball in Game 1 and went eight innings, allowing one earned run on three hits with seven strikeouts. Paul O'Neill hit a two-run homer in the fourth. Mariano Rivera gave up a run in the ninth and still closed it. Yankees 4, Mariners 2.
Game 2 got settled in the second inning. Tino Martinez singled, Jorge Posada walked, and Scott Brosius doubled them both home off Freddy Garcia to start a three-run inning. Stan Javier got two back off Mike Mussina with a homer in the fourth, and that was it. Mussina won, Rivera saved it, and the Yanks went home up 2-0.
Then Piniella opened his postgame press conference with this.
I want you all to hear this: We're going to be back here to play Game Six.
Sweet Lou meant it as a rallying cry. New York took it as a dare.
Game 3: The Mariners Remember Who They Are
For one night, Seattle looked like the 116-win team. The Mariners tied it 2-2 in the fifth, then John Olerud led off the sixth with a homer and the whole inning caved in. Mark McLemore cleared the bases with a triple, Bret Boone hit a two-run shot off Mark Wohlers, and it was 9-2 after a seven-run sixth.
Final: Mariners 14, Yankees 3. Jamie Moyer got the win, El Duque took the loss, and Boone drove in five. (Not the Saturday night anybody at the Stadium had in mind.)
Game 4: Bernie, Then Soriano
Game 4 was one of the weirdest playoff games I've ever seen. Roger Clemens allowed one hit in five innings. Paul Abbott didn't allow any in his five -- and walked eight guys. Both were gone after five. Nobody scored for seven innings.
Ramiro Mendoza bridged three innings, and in the top of the eighth Boone took him deep for a 1-0 lead. In the bottom half, Bernie Williams hit one off Arthur Rhodes over the wall in right. Tie game.
Mo threw a perfect ninth. Brosius grounded a one-out single through the left side, and up came Alfonso Soriano, a rookie second baseman. Two-run homer off Seattle closer Kazuhiro Sasaki. Yankees 3, Mariners 1, and a 3-1 series lead.
That's the swing I remember from this series. Not the blowouts. A rookie ending a playoff game against the other team's closer, with the 116-win Mariners suddenly one loss from going home.
Game 5: No Game 6
Piniella's guarantee had a deadline, and the Yankees blew right through it. Aaron Sele started for Seattle and didn't have it. Bernie hit a two-run homer in the third to make it 4-0, O'Neill homered too, and Pettitte carried a 9-0 lead into the seventh.
At one point Piniella walked back to the dugout after a pitching change and the Stadium let him have it: "No Game 6! No Game 6!" (Lou always did love the Bronx. The Bronx had a funny way of showing it that night.)
Pettitte finished with 6 1/3 innings, and the three Seattle runs charged to him didn't cross the plate until after he'd left with a 9-0 lead. Tino, the ex-Mariner, put a bow on it with a three-run homer in the eighth. Yankees 12, Mariners 3.
Pennant No. 38. Four in a row.
What It Meant
Pettitte won MVP after going 2-0 with a 2.51 ERA and starting both ends of the series. Seattle's 116 wins went into the books next to a five-game ALCS exit, which is about the cruelest thing October can do to a team. (Somewhere in there, the 1995 ALDS felt a little more even.)
For the Yankees, it set up the 2001 World Series against Arizona -- Tino and Jeter in Game 4, Brosius in Game 5, and the Luis Gonzalez bloop that ended it.
But before all that, the first team in 95 years to win 116 games came into the Bronx needing one win to force a Game 6.
They didn't get it.
| Series Result | Yankees 4, Mariners 1 |
| Game 1 (Oct. 17, Seattle) | Yankees 4, Mariners 2 |
| Game 2 (Oct. 18, Seattle) | Yankees 3, Mariners 2 |
| Game 3 (Oct. 20, New York) | Mariners 14, Yankees 3 |
| Game 4 (Oct. 21, New York) | Yankees 3, Mariners 1 |
| Game 5 (Oct. 22, New York) | Yankees 12, Mariners 3 |
| ALCS MVP | Andy Pettitte: 2-0, 2.51 ERA |
| Pettitte, Game 1 | 8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K |
| Pettitte, Game 5 | 6 1/3 IP, 8 H, 3 R |
| Mariners Regular Season | 116-46 (tied MLB record) |
| Pennant | 38th in franchise history, fourth straight |
Game 1: Pettitte Sets the Tone
Pettitte throws eight innings of one-run ball and O'Neill hits a two-run homer in a 4-2 win at Safeco Field.
Game 2: Brosius and the Guarantee
Brosius doubles home two in a three-run second, Mussina and Rivera hold on 3-2, and Piniella promises a Game 6 in Seattle.
Game 3: Seattle Erupts
Olerud homers, McLemore triples and Boone drives in five as the Mariners win 14-3 in the Bronx.
Game 4: Soriano Walks It Off
Bernie ties it in the eighth with a homer off Arthur Rhodes, and Soriano's two-run shot off Kazuhiro Sasaki wins it 3-1 in the ninth.
Game 5: Pennant No. 38
Bernie, O'Neill and Tino homer, Pettitte wins again, and the Yankees take their fourth straight pennant with a 12-3 rout.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the 2001 ALCS between the Yankees and Mariners?
The Yankees won four games to one. They took Games 1 and 2 in Seattle, lost Game 3 at Yankee Stadium 14-3, then won Games 4 and 5 in the Bronx. The 12-3 win in Game 5 on October 22, 2001, gave them their fourth straight American League pennant.
Who was the MVP of the 2001 ALCS?
Andy Pettitte. He won Game 1 with eight innings of one-run ball and won the Game 5 clincher, going 2-0 with a 2.51 ERA in the series.
What did Lou Piniella guarantee in the 2001 ALCS?
After the Mariners lost Game 2 at home to fall behind 2-0, Piniella told reporters, "We're going to be back here to play Game Six." The series never got there. The Yankees closed it out in five games, and fans at Yankee Stadium chanted "No Game 6!" at him during Game 5.
Who hit the walk-off home run in Game 4 of the 2001 ALCS?
Alfonso Soriano. With Scott Brosius on first in the bottom of the ninth, the rookie hit a two-run homer off Mariners closer Kazuhiro Sasaki for a 3-1 win. Bernie Williams had tied the game with a solo homer off Arthur Rhodes in the eighth.