page_title: 1995 American League West tie-breaker game
section_title: Impact
hierarchical_section_title: 1995 American League West tie-breaker game / Impact
caption_attribution_description: Looking at Qwest (football) Field and Downtown Seattle from the Safeco Field stands
context_page_description: The 1995 American League West tie-breaker game was a one-game extension to Major League Baseball's 1995 regular season; the California Angels and Seattle Mariners met to determine the winner of the American League's West Division. It was played at the Kingdome in Seattle, on October 2, 1995.
  The game was necessary after both teams finished the strike-shortened 144-game season with identical records of 78–66. Scoreless until the fifth inning, Seattle held a slim 1–0 lead at the seventh-inning stretch. The Mariners then broke it open and won 9–1 to secure the franchise's first postseason berth. It was counted as the 145th regular season game for both teams, with all the events in the game added to regular season statistics.
  On August 3, the Angels were 56–33, 11 games ahead of the second place Texas Rangers, and 13 ahead of the third-place Mariners, at 43–46. By the end of the month, the Angels were on a six-game losing streak and their lead was trimmed to 7½ games over both Texas and Seattle. On September 21, the Angels lost their seventh-straight and the Mariners pulled even at 72–63, with Texas four games behind.
context_section_description: The Angels' defeat in the tiebreaker marked a continuation of the team's struggles at the time. It was the closest the Angels came to the postseason during their playoff drought that lasted from 1987 through 2001. They would return to the playoffs in 2002, and won their only World Series that year.
  The game was a stepping stone in what is widely regarded in Seattle as the most memorable season in Mariners franchise history. Having secured their first ever postseason berth, the Mariners went on to play the New York Yankees in the ALDS. They would defeat the Yankees in Game 5 of the ALDS, on the heels of Edgar Martínez' series-winning double, but ultimately were defeated by the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series, 4 games to 2.
  The game marked the beginning of the most successful era in Seattle franchise history, as they would go on to win AL West division championships again in 1997 and 2001, and an AL Wild Card berth in 2000. However, they failed to reach the World Series each time and remain the only MLB franchise to never reach the Fall Classic.
  Off the field, the Mariners' AL West championship as well as its memorable run in the postseason served as a catalyst for public funding for a new ballpark. Less than two weeks before the tiebreaker, the residents of King County, Washington (whose county seat is Seattle) voted against a sales tax increase to fund a new stadium, but shortly after their ALDS victory, the Washington State Legislature reconvened and approved a separate funding package for a new stadium. The new stadium, now called T-Mobile Park, opened in July 1999.
caption: T-Mobile Park (then known as Safeco Field), the Mariners' current home ballpark
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