GAME 3 (at Atlanta)
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| Smiley: 42 wins, past two seasons. |
Otis Nixon got things started early for the Braves with a lead-off triple during the bottom of the 1st, he would score a few batters later, as Terry Pendleton grounded to second, thrown out at first. During the second inning, the Braves would leave the bases loaded, runs are going to be hard to come by, with Smiley & Smoltz on the mound in this one.
Still clinging onto a 1-0 lead during the bottom of the 7th, the Braves decide to pinch-hit Lonnie Smith for John Smoltz; Smoltz had 93 pitches & was tired at this point, he possibly could have gone one more inning for me, but I chose to go with Lonnie at the plate. Smith would collect his 8th hit in 16 at-bats this postseason, while he also has 1 HR & 6 RBI as well.
I decide to go with Charlie Leibrandt in the 8th inning, and he surrenders two quick singles to pinch-hitter Matt Lawton & second baseman Chuck Knoblauch. I quickly made another pitching change, and went with Greg McMicheal to face Kirby Puckett -- Puckett makes him pay, with a two-run double to the left-center gap. Twins now lead, 2-1, with no outs.
The bullpen's execution in both Games 2 & 3 for the Braves have been awful!
McMichael would continue to walk Kent Hrbek, and then would allow a single to the Game 2 walk-off hero, Brian Harper... Bases loaded, no outs. I decided to still with McMicheal, since his postseason numbers have been great, and he walks Marty Cordova, walking in the run. I go to the pen again & call on Mike Stanton to face Chili Davis, Stanton rewards me with that move, by also walking in a run. The Braves would finally record an out, as Pedro Munoz grounded to third, and was thrown out at first, but another run scores, making it 4-1, with runners on 2nd & 3rd. Dante Bichette would hit a sac fly to right, scoring in another run. Stanton would end the bleeding, by striking out Matt Lawton, who kicked off this inning.
What a nightmare!
John Smiley is done for the day, going 7 strong innings, with 4 K, while allowing 6 hits & a walk... Gary Wayne comes in and shuts the door on the Braves with 2 strong innings of relief.
The Braves now trail the series, when it really should be 2-1 in Braves favor, the Braves have to be kicking themselves right now.
Another quick note on Smiley, his 1992 postseason record is 3-0, with a 1.66 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, with 11 K in 21.2 innings (3 starts).
GAME 4 (at Atlanta)
The Braves send their southpaw Tom Glavine (15-8, 2.81 ERA) against the surprising Twins rookie Brad Radke (12-9, 3.30) -- Will he continue to surprise, or will his inexperience show against these Braves? The Braves will need every break they can get at this point, after two bad performances by their bullpen.
Things start off sloppy for the Braves, as Tom Glavine surrenders a lead-off double to Chuck Knoblauch. In his match-up against Kirby Puckett, he would throw a wild pitch, that would advance Knoblauch to third -- with Puckett eventually drawing a walk. Two batters later, Brian Harper would knock in Knoblauch, while Puckett advances to second on Harper's RBI single. Kent Hrbek and Greg Gagne would collect RBI singles, to make it, 3-0 Twins after the top of the 1st.
Terry Pendleton's RBI single in the bottom of the 1st, helps keep the Braves within reach.
Bottom of the 2nd, Mark Lemke leads off with a double, followed by a walk to Dave Valle. The Braves' starting pitcher Tom Glavine helps his own cause with an RBI double into the right-center gap, as Valle holds at third; Braves trail 3-2, with runners on 2nd & 3rd with no outs. Brad Radke gets a much-needed strike out against Otis Nixon, while Chipper Jones flies to center, with Valle taking no chance on Kirby Puckett's arm. Batting .280 with runners in scoring position, Terry Pendleton knocks in Valle on a single to right, tying the game at 3-3. Radke gets Dave Justice to fly to right to finish the inning.
Top of the 3rd - Brian Harper leads off the inning with a double, he would eventually score on a Pedro Munoz sac fly to right, giving back the lead to Minnesota, 4-3.
Bottom of the 3rd - Brad Radke strikes out the side in Sid Bream, Deion Sanders & Mark Lemke, as he appears to be settling in.
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| Bichette delivers lethal hit against Atlanta. |
Dave Justice tries to keep the Braves' hopes alive with solo HR off of Twins' reliever Bill Krueger during the bottom of the 7th.
Bottom of the 9th, Twins call on their closer Rick Aguilera. Chipper Jones leads off with a single to right. Thought about hit & run, and swung away with Terry Pendleton as he hits it to the second baseman & gets the force at second, if I did hit & run, I would probably have a runner at second in Jones, instead of a runner at first in Pendleton, with one out. Aguilera would get Justice to fly out & Bream to ground out, as the Twins now own a 3-1 lead, with the Braves on the brink of elimination.
GAME 5 (at Atlanta)
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| Steve Avery with Bobby Cox prior to start. |
The pitching match-up is between playoff stud Steve Avery of the Braves & Twins' Scott Erickson, who has not been great in the playoffs (Career: 0-2 with 4.62 ERA). The Braves' goal is to provide offense to keep Avery out there, and to keep the pen sitting.
Brian Harper's RBI double during the top of the 3rd broke the game's short scoring drought, to give the Twinkies a 1-0 lead... while the Braves answered back with a RBI sac fly by Dave Justice, tying the game up.
Greg Gagne led off 4th inning with a triple & would score on Dante Bichette's sac fly. Once again, Atlanta literally matches Minnesota with lead-off triple by Deion Sanders, who scores on a sac fly by Dave Valle.
With a 2-2 tie entering the 5th, the game has not gone exactly great for Steve Avery so far, who has shown that he's human in this one, allowing 7 hits & a walk, the first 4 innings.
The Twins' starter Scott Erickson did his part by allowing only 2 runs, 6 hits & 2 walks, with 3 strikeouts in 6 innings of work; Gary Wayne comes in to take over during the bottom of the 7th.
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| Chipper: The kid delivers huge two-run single. |
That would be it for Wayne, as reliever Mark Guthrie comes in to face Terry Pendleton; Pendleton delivers single to left, runners on 1st & 2nd, still one out. Guthrie strikes out Dave Justice for out number two, with Lonnie Smith nearly knocking one out to deep center, but Kirby Puckett was at the warning track to end the inning.
Top of the 8th, after lead-off single to Kirby Puckett, Deion Sanders makes diving catch in foul territory on a ball hit by Marty Cordova; Sanders is injured in the process, as Lonnie Smith will move to his natural position of left field to take Sanders' spot, and Sid Bream will come in to play first. Brian Harper hits into a 6-4-3 double play and ends the inning.
Bottom of the 8th - Dave Valle hits one-out single to right, Mark Lemke bunts Valle over to second, for the 2nd out. Braves make tough decision and pinch-hit for Steve Avery, who only had 82 pitches under his belt (but his health meter in Out of the Park had him in the red / really tired) -- So Braves will call on Ryan Klesko, so far, 0-for-5 this postseason (5-for-9 during the season) in pinch-hitting duty. Klesko grounds out to finish the inning.
The Braves will call on southpaw Mike Stanton, who has fared better than some of the other Atlanta relievers of late, as he will face lefty Kent Hrbek; Hrbek draws a lead-off walk. Greg Gagne strikes out for the 1st out. Stanton walks the tying run with Pedro Munoz on 1st, while Bobby Cox goes out to the mound & calls on Greg McMicheal, the Braves only need two outs, a double play would get them out of this inning & secure a much-needed win. Chili Davis flies to right, with the runners staying put. It all comes down to Matt Lawton, he lines it to Terry Pendleton who makes a diving catch on the third base line, a few inches further to his left, and that ball was going to the left field corner.
Braves win, and will live to play another day! This series goes back to Minnesota. The Game 6 starters will be John Smoltz (Braves) & Kevin Tapani (Twins).
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