Wednesday, October 6, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section B · Page 5
Baseball
Astros win curbs playoff jinx
Leadoff homer seals 6-1 victory
ATLANTA — Daryle Ward, who started the season in Triple-A, is making a big impact in October for the Houston Astros.
Ward's leadoff homer against Greg Maddux in the sixth inning yesterday sent the Astros on their way to a 6-1 victory against the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of the National League division series.
The win provided hope that Houston would end its history of playoff failures and was a troubling start for a team with its own postseason struggles.
The Astros sealed the victory in the ninth with four runs against reliever Mike Remlinger. Carl Everett had a sacrifice fly before
Ken Caminiti haunted the Braves again with a three-run homer.
The NL East champion Braves, making their eighth straight postseason appearance, lost only their second division series game since the format was instituted in 1995. Before yesterday, they were 12-1 overall, including 10 straight victories.
Houston, which clinched its third straight Central title on the final day of the season, never has won in five playoff series, including a 3-0 sweep by the Braves in 1997. The Astros won't get swept this year, seizing the home-field advantage in the best-of-five series.
Of course, the home field was not much of an advantage to the Braves, who led the majors with 103 wins but drew the smallest crowd in Atlanta's 44-game postseason history.
The turnout of 39,119 was nearly
11,000 short of capacity at Turner Field and easily eclipsed the previous low of 42,117 for Game 1 of the 1998 NL championship series. In the right-field upper deck, only a few dozen people occupied seven sections of blue seats.
Ward, the son of former major leaguer Gary Ward, was recalled from the minors for the second time on July 20. He replaced the slumping Derek Bell and doubled in the first three runs Sunday of a 9-4 victory against Los Angeles, securing the division title.
Maddux was 19-9 during the regular season and had the same record lifetime against the Astros with a 2.30 ERA. But he also surrendered a career-high 258 hits, a trend that continued in the division series.
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Maddux slipped to 9-9 lifetime in postseason play. He had been 4-0 in the division series.
EVERYTHING BUT ICE
Stephen Jay Gould
"Questioning the Millennium:
Why We Cannot Predict the Future"
Wednesday, October 6, 1999
day, October 6, 1999 8 p.m. Lied Center Free Public Lecture University of Kansas
After a day off, the series resumes at
'El Duque' stymies Rangers in playoff opener
Hosted by:
Hall Center for the Humanities, 785.864.4798
Williams, showing why the Yankees paid $87.5 million to keep him, had a two-run double off Aaron Sele in the fifth, a three-run homer off Mike Venafro in the sixth and an RBI single off Jeff Fassero in the eighth.
Texas has just one run in its last 42 innings in the playoffs, all against New York and has lost seven straight postseason games since beating the Yankees in the Rangers' first one, in 1996.
NEW YORK—Talk about instant replay.
Picking up right where they left off last October, the New York Yankees blanked Texas yet again, with Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez allowing two hits in eight innings and Bernie Williams driving in six runs as the World Series champions beat the Rangers 8-0 yesterday in their American League playoff opener.
The Associated Press
After that, Hernandez allowed only a single by Rodriguez in the third.
Texas mounted its best threat in the first inning, loading the bases on a out-out double by Ivan Rodriguez and walks to Rusty Greer and Rafael Palmeiro. But Hernandez got out of it by striking out Todd Zeile to end the inning.
While Texas has led the American League in hitting for two straight years, the Rangers haven't scored a single run in their past 22 postseason innings.
Yankee Stadium tomorrow, with Andy Pettitt (14-11) pitching for New York against Rick Helling (13-11).
This year, the Yankees' record slipped a league-high 16 wins to 89-64, creating doubt as to whether they were strong enough to win their third Series title in four years.
But "El Duque" roped the Rangers and improved to 3-0 with a 0.41 ERA in postseason play (one run in 20 innings). Jeff Nelson followed with a hitless ninth.
MLB
DIVISION
SERIES
SCORES
New York
Yankees 7,
Texas
Rangers 0
Houston Astros
6, Atlanta
Braves 1
New York
Mets at
Arizona
Diamondbacks,
late game
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