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Early edge
Solid performance by Maddux gives Braves 1-0 series lead
Posted: Wednesday October 13, 1999 07:18 PM
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Greg Maddux gave up only five hits in seven innings in Game 1. AP |
ATLANTA (AP) -- Leave it to Greg Maddux to bring pitching back to
this postseason. And leave it to the Atlanta Braves to remind the
New York Mets who's boss in the National League.
Maddux shut down Mike Piazza and the Mets for seven innings and
John Rocker sprinted from the bullpen to finish them off, giving
the Braves a 4-2 victory Tuesday night in Game 1 of the NL
Championship Series.
After two days in which baseball fans across the country saw
Boston and Cleveland combine for 50 runs in two AL playoff games,
Maddux and the Braves showed what really wins in October.
"We need three more games. We're on the right track so far,"
Maddux said.
Maddux, Mike Remlinger and Rocker combined on a six-hitter as
the Braves beat New York for the 10th time in 13 meetings this
year. Atlanta, which sent the Mets into a late tailspin that almost
cost them the wild-card spot, has defeated them in 14 of the last
15 matchups at Turner Field.
"He's Greg Maddux. He doesn't have all those trophies because
he's lucky," Mets manager Bobby Valentine said. "He did a great
job."
Valentine was left without much else to say. Instead, all the
verbal sparring between the teams leading up to the series took a
backseat to dominant pitching.
Piazza returned to the lineup after missing the final two games
of the first-round win over Arizona because of a swollen left
thumb. He drove in the Mets' first run with a groundout and
finished 0-for-4.
Piazza did not hit the ball out of the infield. The Braves also
stole three bases against the All-Star catcher -- he made a poor
throw on one attempt and didn't even make a throw on another.
A crowd of 44,172 -- it was 6,000 short of capacity, perhaps held
down by an all-day rain that caused a four-minute delay at the
start -- saw Atlanta win the opening game of the NLCS at home. The
previous two years, the Braves lost Game 1 at home and eventually
lost the series.
Every year since 1991, the team that won Game 1 went on to win
the NLCS. Atlanta has been in every one of those best-of-7 series.
"It's better to win the first game," Braves manager Bobby Cox
said. "You like to win the first one."
Game 2 will be Wednesday afternoon with Kevin Millwood, who
pitched a one-hitter against Houston in the opening round, starting
for the Braves against Kenny Rogers.
Maddux, a four-time Cy Young winner and a nine-time Gold Glover,
gave an all-around performance in improving to 10-9 lifetime in the
postseason. He beat the team that got eight straight hits off him
Sept. 29 at Shea Stadium, put down a perfect sacrifice bunt and
made several nice fielding plays.
Walt Weiss, making his first start since the last day of the
regular season, had three hits and stole a base for the Braves. He
doubled and scored on Gerald Williams' single for a 2-1 lead in the
fifth and, after Eddie Perez homered in the sixth, added an RBI
single in the eighth.
"He did a great job against their lineup," Weiss said of
Maddux. "Our pitchers have handled them for the most part. That's
the difference."
Rocker got four outs for a save. As is his custom, he ran in to
relieve and, with a runner on second, threw fastballs of 97 mph, 94
and 97 to strike out John Olerud.
He allowed an unearned run in the ninth on Todd Pratt's two-out
single.
A day earlier, Rocker was one of the most vocal Atlanta players,
wondering aloud how Valentine 'can say a word' about the Braves.
Williams singled home the tiebreaking run in the fifth, lining a
shot past charging shortstop Rey Ordonez. Later in the inning,
losing pitcher Masato Yoshii was pulled. After leaving the dugout,
he broke a bat and smashed a couple of chairs.
Perez homered off Pat Mahomes in the sixth, right after Ordonez
and second baseman Edgardo Alfonzo turned a nifty double play.
The Braves took a 1-0 lead after two batters. Williams singled
up the middle on the first pitch and quickly tested Piazza,
stealing well ahead of the catcher's one-hop throw to the wrong
side of the bag.
Bret Boone followed with an RBI single and when Chipper Jones
walked, pitching coach Dave Wallace marched to the mound and Orel
Hershiser began warming up. Yoshii settled down right away,
retiring 12 of the next 13 batters.
The Mets missed a chance to score in the third after Yoshii
missed a bunt on a suicide-squeeze play. After Yoshii grounded out
to end the inning, he was so upset that Valentine had to settle
down his pitcher -- talking to him in Japanese.
As the Mets took the field, Valentine spoke with bench coach
Bruce Benedict, filling in as the third-base coach while Cookie
Rojas began his five-game suspension for shoving umpire Charlie
Williams last weekend. New York remembered Rojas by hanging his
jersey in the dugout.
The Mets made it 1-all in the fourth on Piazza's RBI grounder.
Notes: Braves first baseman Andres Galarraga, sidelined all season
by cancer, threw out the first ball. ... Benedict last coached
third base on a regular basis in 1996 under Valentine at Triple-A
Norfolk. ... Braves first baseman Ryan Klesko tried to trap Roger
Cedeno with the hidden-ball trick in the seventh. No luck. ...
Cedeno made a superb diving catch on Boone's liner to right in the
fifth. ... The Mets' streak of 110 straight innings without an
error ended on left fielder Rickey Henderson's miscue in the fifth.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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