Thursday, October 9.1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
Braves of October chipper about 7-1 defeat of Marlins
By Ben Walker The Associated Press
ATLANTA — Now these looked more like the Atlanta Braves of October.
Shamed by their sloppy showing in the opener, the Braves bounced back with the complete package last night, just as Florida manager Jim Leyland had feared.
Tom Glavine pitched shutout ball into the eighth inning, Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko homered and the Braves caught everything in outplaying the upstart Marlins in all phases, winning 7-1 to tie the National League Championship Series at a game each.
"I said it last night: The Braves aren't going to get excited about one loss," Leyland said. "They came back today and did everything almost perfect."
Especially Jones. A day after his misplay put the Braves in a big hole, he played flawlessly in the field, and also drove in three runs with three hits.
How did he deal with failure the previous night?
"I have a system down pat," he said.
"You take the car ride home with your spouse, you rant and rave, and cuss and whatnot. When you get out of the car, you just forget about it."
Looking every bit like the team that's been boss in the NL throughout the 1990s, and nothing like the club that gave away Game 1, the Braves gave Glavine an early 5-0 lead.
"They weren't too happy with the loss last night, that's for sure," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "I felt they could swing great today. We
scalded some balls."
Now, after their first setback in five playoff games, it will be the Marlins' turn to prove they can recover from such a lousy game. Game 3 will be tomorrow night at Miami when rookie Tony Saunders, 3-0 against Atlanta this year, faces John Smoltz.
The Marlinls fell for the first time in their young postseason history. They looked bad from the beginning — Gold Glove catcher Charles Johnson made his first error of the season on Kenny Lofton's leadoff bunt, and Alex Fernandez lasted just 2-2-3 innings in his shortest start since 1995.
"The series is even. I wasn't celebrating last night and I'm not discouraged now," Leyland said.
Glavine did his best to restore the Braves' pitching prominence, allowing three hits in 7-2-3 innings. He retired the first nine batters and cruised until Devon White's RBI double with two outs in the eighth — a play, by the way, on which White was foolishly out trying to stretch it into a triple.
"Nobody was in here panicked," Glavine said. "Realistically, for us, unless we're facing elimination, we don't look at any game as a must-win. But we didn't want to go to Miami down 2-0 and having to play three times down there."
Relievers Mike Cather and Mark Wohlers completed the three-bitter.
defeat, the four players guilty of the misplays — Jones, Klesko, Fred McGriff and Lofton — each turned in neat crabs.
Klesko and Jones each homered for the second straight day. Keith Lockhart had three hits and scored three times.
Fernandez, one of several key players the Marlins imported in the offseason to defeat the Braves, was 2-0 against them this year. But he was tagged for six hits in his earliest exit since going 2-2 3 innings for the Chicago White Sox on May 25, 1995.
Atlanta's fielders, meanwhile, had a return to respectability. A day after several mistakes made all five runs off Greg Maddux unearned in a 5-3
"I just had a bad day today," Fernandez said.
It took only one inning in this game to see that all the omens were in Atlanta's favor.
Jones and Lofton had no trouble making plays in the top of the first. On Tuesday night, Jones failed to handle a grounder down the third-base line that turned into a three-run double.
"The always want to jump back into the saddle right away." Jones said. "If there's such a thing as gaining defensive momentum, we did. We made a couple of good plays early and that got everybody pumped up. I think it was a great remedy for us."
Lofton opened the bottom half with a bunt to the left side of the plate that Johnson reached quickly. But he threw low past first base on a play scored as a single and an error.
Johnson had gone 175 games since June 23, 1996, without an error, and set a major league record for catchers this year for most consecutive games (123) in a season without a miscue.
BALTIMORE — Hey, the American League has great pitchers, too.
The Associated Press
By Ronald Blum
Orioles' pitching leads to win
With all the attention focused on the superb starters of Atlanta and Florida, pitchers in the AL series have been overlooked.
Scott Erickson shut down Cleveland on just four hits in eight innings, and Brady Anderson and Roberto Alomar hit home runs last night to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 3-0 victory against the Indians in the opener of the American League Championship Series.
Erickson managed something no AL pitcher has accomplished, carrying Baltimore to the first shutout in this year's postseason.
Winless in seven postseason starts before defeating Seattle last week, Erickson got 14 outs on grounders and struck out three, and Randy Myers followed with a perfect ninth, extending the Indians' scoreless streak to 13 innings.
Anderson, meanwhile, opened the series exactly the same way he began the Indians-Orioles matchup in last year's playoffs — with a home run.
And Alomar, whose 12th-inning homer in Game 4 won last year's series clincher, hit a two-run shot in the third off of losing pitcher Chad Ogea.
Anderson also made a great defensive play when he leaped to catch Manny Ramirez's first-inning shot, which was headed for a home run above the 7-foot wall in right-center.
Baltimore, seeking its first AL penchant since 1983, will try to take a 2-0 lead tonight when Jimmy Key pitches against Cleveland's Charles Nagy.
Erickson, making his first appearance against Cleveland this year, walked none and allowed just the singles to David Justice in the second, Bip Roberts in the third, Marquis Grissom in the sixth and Matt Williams in the
League Championship Series
National League
Yesterday
Atlanta 7, Florida 1, series tied 1-1
American League
*Alanta (Smoltz 15-12) at Florida (Saunders 4-6) 7:07 p.m. (NBC)
Baltimore 3, Cleveland 0, Baltimore leads series 1-0
■ Cleveland (Nagy 15-10) at Baltimore (Key 16-
10), 7:13 p.m. (Fox)
eighth.
Justice was stranded at first; Roberts was left at third; Grissom was erased when Roberts lined into a double play and Williams was rubbed out when Sandy Alomar hit the ball back to the mound that Erickson turned into a double play.
On a night that felt like summer — the gametime temperature was 75 — Anderson showed flashes of his 1996 form, when he hit 50 homers and set a major league record with 12 leading off games.
On Ogea's first pitch, he crushed the ball over the 25-fc scoreboard in right field. Last year, he had opened the first-round series with a homer off Nagy.
Anderson doubled into the left-center field gap in the third and Alomar followed with a homer nearly to the same spot as Anderson's.
Ogea, 5-2 against the Orioles in did,n't get into much trouble except for the homers, allowing six hits in six innings, striking out three and walking two.