2001 American League Championship Series

Game summaries

Game 1, on October 17 at Safeco Field, saw the Yankees take a 1–0 lead in the second on a Chuck Knoblauch single that scored Jorge Posada. Paul O'Neill hit a two-run home run in the fourth to make it 3–0. The Mariners scored in the fifth on a John Olerud groundout that brought home Edgar Martínez. In the ninth, David Justice singled to score Alfonso Soriano, extending the lead to 4–1.

Game 2

The Mariners got a run back in the bottom of the inning when Mariano Rivera threw a wild pitch that allowed Ichiro Suzuki to score, but Rivera retired Bret Boone and Martínez to end the game. Game 2, on October 18, also at Safeco Field, began with a Scott Brosius double in the second that scored Tino Martinez and Jorge Posada, giving New York a 2–0 lead. Brosius then scored on a Chuck Knoblauch single to make it 3–0. The Mariners responded in the fourth on a two-run home run from Stan Javier after Mike Cameron was hit by a pitch, cutting the lead to 3–2.

Game 3

No further scoring occurred, and the Yankees took a 2–0 series lead. Game 3, on October 20 at Yankee Stadium, started with a Bernie Williams two-run home run in the first after David Justice walked, putting the Yankees up 2–0. They did not score again until the eighth on a David Justice RBI single. Orlando Hernández pitched four shutout innings before the Mariners loaded the bases in the fifth.

Bret Boone's single tied the game. In the sixth, John Olerud led off with a home run to put Seattle ahead 3–2.

After Hernández allowed a single and walk, Mike Stanton relieved him. An error allowed another run to score, and after a walk to load the bases, Mark McLemore cleared them with a triple. Mark Wohlers then gave up a two-run home run to Boone, making the final score 9–2.

Aftermath

The 2001 American League Championship Series brought an end to the Yankees' run of three straight World Series titles, as they went on to lose to the Arizona Diamondbacks in seven games. New York made it back to the Fall Classic in 2003 but fell to the underdog Florida Marlins, and they would not win another championship until 2009. This series also closed the book on a brief but intense rivalry between Seattle and New York that had started with the 1995 ALDS, a matchup often called one of the best non-World Series postseason series ever.

It marked the finish of the Mariners' most successful era, a stretch that saw them reach the playoffs four times in seven years. Ichiro Suzuki, a key figure for Seattle, was traded to the Yankees in 2012 after eleven seasons, stayed in New York through 2014, then signed one-year deals with the Marlins until 2017. He ended his playing career back with the Mariners in 2019 at age 45, entered the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame in August 2022, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2025.

The Mariners’ 116 regular-season wins remain the most ever by an American League team and tie the 1906 Cubs for the MLB record. Under manager Lou Piniella, the club had great success, but then slid into a long drought, not returning to the postseason until 2022 and not reaching the ALCS again until 2025. In 2023, MLB.com ranked the Yankees' upset of the Mariners as the third biggest postseason upset in history.