Chuck Finley Starting Pitcher Cleveland Indians Profile
	2001 SEASON STATISTICS GM W L Sv K ERA 22 8 7 0 96 5.54

SEATTLE -- Chuck Finley will make his first postseason start on 15 years' rest.

Finley last pitched in the playoffs in 1986 as a rookie for the California Angels, and at the time, the left-hander thought trips to the mound in October would be annual events.

On Thursday, the 38-year-old Finley's long wait will finally end as he starts for the Cleveland Indians in Game 2 of their AL playoff series against the Seattle Mariners.

"This is wonderful," Finley said. "I spent a lot of my time in Anaheim battling with the Mariners to get to this point, and having to go over to the Central Division with Cleveland and to end up here is special.

"A lot of guys in the league playing in the playoffs don't have 16 years in the big leagues, much less waiting 16 years to get back to the playoffs. It's been a big ride."

The Indians won the series opener 5-0 as Bartolo Colon pitched eight shutout innings and Seattle didn't play like the team that won an AL-record 116 games in the regular season.

The Mariners, who will start 20-game winner Jamie Moyer, know they can't afford to fall behind 2-0 in the series, with Games 3 and 4 in Cleveland this weekend.

"Everybody is going to have to be hungry," Seattle reliever Jeff Nelson said. "It's a must-win game."

Seattle should concentrate on scoring first. The Mariners have been shut out in 22 consecutive postseason innings against Cleveland dating to the fifth inning of Game 5 of the 1995 playoffs.

Finley has owned the Mariners during his 16-year career, going 19-8 against Seattle, his second-most wins against any club.

"He knows what he's doing out there," Mariners shortstop Mark McLemore said.

The Indians signed Finley to a three-year, $27 million deal before last season to pitch in big games like this. The left-hander spent two stints on the disabled list this season, limiting him to 22 starts.

But for the second straight year, he finished strong and has gone 9-2 the past two Septembers.

And after 15 years, he's never been more ready to pitch in October.

"This is one of those things that you should cherish and enjoy," he said, "because you never know when it might come again."

Moyer, also 38, can certainly relate.

The journeyman missed the playoffs last year after breaking his kneecap while pitching a simulated game.

But this year, Moyer went 20-6 during the regular season and twice beat the Indians, going 2-0 with a 0.64 ERA.

"That's this year," said Moyer, who came into the season 3-7 vs. Cleveland. "I don't really have an answer to why that happened."

Cleveland has had its troubles against soft-throwing lefties like Moyer, preferring to swing hard against hard-throwers like Game 1's losing pitcher, Freddy Garcia.

Ellis Burks said the key against Moyer is patience. Burks plans to move up in the batter's box to have a better chance of hitting his sinker. But even that might not help.

"He's one of the smartest pitchers out there," said Burks, who went 3-for-4 with a homer in Game 1. "The first two times we faced him, we just didn't make any adjustments."

Cleveland's easy win in Game 1 against a team that lost just 46 times all year seemed to surprise everyone, but not the Mariners.

"Maybe you guys underrated them," McLemore said of the AL Central champions. "We've played them before. We knew what they were capable of."

Both teams prepared for Thursday's Game 2 by holding optional workouts under a closed roof at Safeco Field on Wednesday.

The off day didn't sit well with some of the Mariners eager to put the opener behind them.

"We all understand the job that we have to do," said Seattle center fielder Mike Cameron said. "We can't let one game shatter all of our hopes."

Coming back to win a series is nothing new for the Mariners. They dropped a series opener 15 times this season and came back to win or tie the series 10 times.

Now they'll need to win three of four, or their historic season will be over.

"They're all important," Moyer said. "If you don't win the series, you're done. During the season, if you don't win the series, you can move onto the next series."

In Game 1, the Indians were the ones who looked more like a record-setting machine than the Mariners. They got the big hits and made the big defensive plays behind Colon, who took advantage of Safeco's afternoon shadows and used his 99 mph fastball to blow away the Mariners.

The all-around performance was somewhat surprising. The Indians played poorly since clinching their division, and Game 1 only underscored the club's maddening ability to turn it on only when it needs to.

"As a player, I don't like that," Indians third baseman Travis Fryman said. "I never played with guys who could do that, but I never played with guys who possessed as much talent as some of these guys.

"We've turned it on and off all season, and I know that's frustrating to the manager and the coaches, but that's the way we play."