Between The Lines

Never Say Never. On May 10 the Braves trailed the Phillies 8-1 entering the bottom of the ninth but scored seven runs to tie the game. Atlanta then won 9-8 in the 15th. It was the second time this season that a team had rallied from a seven-run deficit in the ninth to win. (The Angels did it against the Blue Jays on April 15.) According to the Elias Sports Bureau, such a comeback had occurred only two times in the previous 30 years. The Braves' winning run was driven in by pitcher Mike Stanton's bunt single. It was his second hit of the game, making him only the third reliever in the last three years to get two hits in a game. More important, the Braves had used all of their available position players and pitchers (excluding three starters), so if the game had gone on much longer, Atlanta had plans to insert pitcher John Smoltz in leftfield, move leftfielder Dave Gallagher to third and put third baseman Bill Pecota on the mound. "I was trying to find a way to get the game over with so I wouldn't have to pitch another inning," said Stanton, who worked four innings, "but I would have liked to have seen Pecota pitch."

Opportunity Knocked. The Pirates left 17 runners on base—one shy of the National League record for a nine-inning game—in a 6-4 loss to the Phillies last Thursday. "I had a lot of visitors," said Pittsburgh third base coach Rich Donnelly, "but no one went home. It was like a Monopoly game: No one would advance directly to Go. They were all stuck on some utility."