Joe Torre gauges the temperature of a series by the length of his pass list. With the Mariners coming to town tonight, Torre’s free tickets are a hotter commodity than ducats to “The Producers.”
“I don’t even want to talk about it,” said Torre, who even expects a couple of his nieces at the Stadium this weekend. “I can’t count that high. People who never call, and you can’t turn down.”
The Yankees (72-49), holding a season-high lead over the Red Sox in the AL East, square off against Seattle (87-33 entering last night’s game in Boston) in a possible ALCS preview.
“This weekend? It’s important,” Torre said. “It is important, because we can measure ourselves against the best team in the game right now. Hopefully we come out on the good end of this thing.”
Yankees players concurred it was a big series, but tried to downplay the magnitude of the outcome of the three games.
“Every game is important right now, because each victory we get, we keep Boston from getting to us,” David Justice said. “So every game is important from here on out.”
On April 24-26, the Mariners swept three games in New York. The Bombers took two out of three at Safeco Field from May 18-20, although the M’s tagged Roger Clemens with his only loss in the finale. Seattle is even hotter now, having lost just nine games since the All-Star break.
“They’re playing great, but if we go out there and sweep three, it’s not going to mean anything in October if we face each other,” said Tino Martinez.
In a sense, the Yanks luck out by missing Freddy Garcia (14-4) and Aaron Sele (12-3), but they won’t pitch Clemens.
“I think we have the advantage of starting pitching,” Mike Stanton said. “But regardless of what it looks like on paper, you still have to make quality pitches and still have to get people out.”
Four Mariners starters have at least 12 victories, and the club leads the AL with a 3.74 ERA.
“There’s no soft spot there,” Torre said. “They don’t have a name like Roger Clemens, but they’re all in double figures. Garcia and Sele, [Jamie] Moyer. They’ve done a helluva job over there.”
The Mariners are battling the ’98 Yankees in history. Those Bombers posted 114 wins, and the M’s were on pace for 118 through 120 games.
“They’re obviously having an incredible year,” Stanton said. “You’ve got a bunch of guys having career years, and to win that many games, that’s kind of what it takes. There’s still six weeks left, so you can’t give them the record yet.
“The Stadium will probably be electric.”