SEATTLE -- Seattleites haven't been this nervous without a Microsoft ruling by Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson somehow being involved.

After winning more games than any previous team in American League history, after being in first place for 190 consecutive days, after leading their division by double-digits the final five months, the Mariners opened their postseason Tuesday afternoon with -- what else? -- a 5-0 shutout loss to Cleveland in front of a record crowd at Safeco.

	The M's are by no means out of it, but Jay Buhner, left, and Edgar Martinez find it tough to watch their Game 1 loss to the Indians.

You can bet there will be a lot of worried Mariners fans ordering their lattes "double tall" from now until the series resumes Thursday.

"Hey, they were panicking when we went 4-3 on a road trip," MVP candidate Bret Boone said. "But we've gone too far and played too well and the character is too good for us to panic right now. It's natural for people to start questioning like that -- we got shut out. But I know the guys in this room aren't panicking. We've had games like that this year where we flat out got beat and came back the next day.

"What's important is how the people in this clubhouse feel and the people in this room feel good. I know that because we've been a down a lot this year and always come back."

Down a lot? Just when would that have been? When that July 7 loss to the Dodgers narrowed their AL West lead to just 19 games over Oakland? Face it: You win 116 games and lead your division wire-to-wire and your most pressing problem is wondering whether you should spray yourself with a domestic or French champagne.

As center fielder Mike Cameron said, "We've been in a situation where we lost a game but we haven't been in a situation like this in a long time."

Of course, when you face an opponent pitching as well as Cleveland starter Bartolo Colon did from the afternoon shadows, it doesn't make much difference what your record was in the regular season, you're going to lose and you're going to look as robust as Don Knotts doing so.

Colon pitched a gem, throwing mid-90s gas on the fringes of the strike zone, forcing the usual patient Mariners to swing at pitches they normally wouldn't, striking out 10 batters and holding the game's most potent offense scoreless. "He was like Michelangelo," Cameron said. "He was doing outlines of the strike zones."

The Mariners couldn't touch Colon and things went so against their game plan that Edgar Martinez stole a base in the sixth inning and Ichiro was caught stealing in the third.

Seattle starter Freddy Garcia, meanwhile, struggled just a bit. When he's at the top of his game, Garcia may be the league's best pitcher not named Pedro Martinez. But he can still occasionally get a little flustered from time to time, as he did in the fourth when he let a bloop single, a walk and a stingy strike zone get to him. He wound up giving up three runs and loading the bases with nobody out.

He recovered to strike out the next three batters but it was too late. The Mariners couldn't touch Colon and things went so against their game plan that Edgar Martinez stole a base in the sixth inning and Ichiro was caught stealing in the third.

Cleveland general manager John Hart has watched his team enter the postseason after winning the division by 30 games and by six games. He says it doesn't matter whether a team was pressed during the season or coasted, whether they played well the final two weeks or staggered to the finish like Miss Jane Pittman.

What matters somewhat is that a five-game series negates Seattle's great pitching depth to a certain extent while Cleveland's lack of same isn't challenged. So what if the Mariners have the best 1-2-3-4 starters in baseball if not all of them can pitch in this series? And so what if Cleveland doesn't have a dependable fourth starter if they don't need him?

"We didn't win 100 games because our fourth and fifth starters couldn't pitch for us," Hart said. "Anytime we can go with three starters, we're in better shape. This sets up better for us."

	Tough to be the best
	How the team with the best overall record in each season since 1990 has fared in the postseason:
	Year	Team	Record	Result
	2001	Sea.	116-46	?
	2000	S.F.	97-65	lost 1st rd
	1999	Atl.	103-59	lost WS
	1998	NYY	114-48	won WS
	1997	Atl.	101-61	lost NLCS
	1996	Cle.	99-62	lost 1st rd
	1995	Cle.	100-44	lost WS
	1993	Atl.	104-58	lost NLCS
	1992	Atl.	98-64	lost WS
	1991	Pit.	98-64	lost NLCS
	1990	Oak.	103-59	lost WS

So, after a season of blue skies and big leads, things suddenly look a little gloomy for the Mariners. Down a game, they have to win three of the next four. Their next opponent is lefty Chuck Finley, who is 19-8 with a 2.81 ERA against Seattle in his career, and shortstop Carlos Guillen is still out with tuberculosis and -- quick, better make that a triple tall with extra whipped cream.

On the other hand, the Mariners lost the first two games of their 1995 series with the Yankees and won the next three to not only take the series but salvage the franchise. And this year's Mariners only lost three games in a row once all season. There is a good reason for that. They have the best offense and best pitching in the game. So things aren't all that gloomy.

"Some of our fans are probably nervous," first baseman John Olerud said, "and I'm sure some are still pretty confident."

That's the way the postseason is, though. Each game is so important that the momentum can shift 180 degrees in a day. Win a game and you look like the 2001 Mariners and nothing can stop you. Lose and you look like the 1977 Mariners and you'll never win again.

And then it changes again the next day.

"It will shift from game to game," Cleveland third baseman Travis Fryman said. "When you win the first game in a five-game series and they have to win three of the next four, that's huge. It just shifts a little more pressure to them and allows us to relax a bit more."

The Mariners won 116 games over six months of the regular season. But all those wins no longer provide the cushion they did as recently as last week. A five-game series doesn't offer much in the way of comfort.

"I hate five-game series. I can't stand them," Fryman said. "If you have to face Pedro Martinez like we had to in the past, that's a difficult obstacle to overcome. I like seven-game series because I do feel that the best team wins. In a five-game series, the best team may not win."

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com