|
|
 |
 |   |
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Video Plus Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities 
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE | |
Break out the dance Braves cut loose after crucial Game 2 victory
Updated: Thursday October 18, 2001 4:03 AM
PHOENIX -- Everybody knew how important Wednesday night's game was to the Atlanta Braves. You don't need to be neck-deep into baseball to know that if the Braves had lost Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, they were meat. They were charbroiled meat. They were finished. "Nobody in here was saying it out loud," Braves third baseman Chipper Jones said. No, but the Braves knew it. More than anyone. They knew that a loss in Game 2, with Curt Schilling slated to pitch for Arizona in Game 3 and possibly Randy Johnson in Game 4, would have activated a team-full of tee times next week. That's why they broke out the "shower dance" after their 8-1 win. Don't ask. I didn't have the nerve. Just hearing the whooping from the other room and seeing the smiling faces filing into the main portion of the clubhouse afterward was enough. The Braves -- the relieved, joyous, maybe overly clean Braves -- won one they absolutely, positively, without a whisker of a maybe had to win on Wednesday. They evened up the NLCS at one game apiece. They avoided what could have become a sweep. Athletes like to downplay single games. They don't like to put one game out there as too "big." You've heard it before. "They're all big in the postseason," they'll say.
Yeah. Well, this one was bigger than most. Lose Game 2 of this NLCS and the Braves were looking at their worst nightmare. And these guys lost four World Series in the '90s. "I'd be stupid," said Jones, who is not a stupid guy, "if I said I'd like our chances facing Schilling in Game 3 and Johnson in Game 4 down 2-0." This is what the Braves have to look forward to Friday night in Game 3 in Atlanta. A guy in Schilling who is 2-0 in two postseason starts. With a 0.50 ERA. With two complete games. Who has struck out 18. This is what the Braves probably have to look forward to Saturday in Game 4, though Arizona manager Bob Brenly is not saying yet. A guy in Johnson who threw a three-hitter at the Braves in Game 1. The math's easy enough. Down 2-0. Plus Schilling. Plus Johnson. Yeah. Wednesday was on the big side, all right. "We knew," said catcher Javy Lopez, who smacked a home run Wednesday in the 8-1 Game 2 win at Bank One Ballpark, "we had to have a win." It wasn't easy. Miguel Batista one-hit the Braves for the better part of seven innings. But the Braves pulled out Game 2. And now they get Schilling. "I always feel like, honestly, Game 2 is an urgent game in any series. So much can happen one way or the other," said lefty Tom Glavine, who pitched seven innings of five-hit ball to get the win. "Our focus was just on trying to get a game here and get out of here. "Obviously, with Curt being the first guy we're going to see, it's going to be, again, a big task for us. But you got to figure sooner or later, he's not going to be as perfect as he's been. Hopefully, it's going to be Friday night." If the Braves had not won Wednesday, that is what they would have had to do. Hope. It's no way to win a series. The win Wednesday does something else, too. It forces a Game 5 on Sunday in Atlanta, which means the Braves won't have to face either Schilling or Johnson in that game, providing Johnson goes Saturday. Games 6 and 7 -- maybe Schilling and Johnson, again -- are scheduled in Phoenix next Tuesday and Wednesday. "We're still going to have to beat Schilling and Randy Johnson at least once," said right fielder Brian Jordan, "to win this series." True enough. But the Braves don't have to do it right away. Not after Wednesday's win. Big, you think? Big enough to make a bunch of guys want to dance in the shower. John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer. Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
