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 Help! Braves look to Maddux to jump-start NLCS comeback
Posted: Friday October 09, 1998 06:55 PM
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The Atlanta Braves, acknowledged as the team of the '90s, are in big trouble, trailing 2-0 in the NL championship series and down to their No. 3 starter. Of course, Greg Maddux isn't just any No. 3 starter. He's a four-time Cy Young Award winner who was very good again this season, going 18-9 with a league-leading 2.22 ERA. And that has to be cause for optimism, something the Braves can use heading into Saturday's Game 3 against the San Diego Padres. The Braves have advanced to the playoffs every year since 1991 except for 1994, when there was no postseason because of the players' strike. However, they've won the World Series only once -- in 1995. Time and again, they've disappointed their fans and themselves. The Padres are two wins away from causing that kind of pain again. Maddux, however, said he's happy to be here, and feels no urgency at all. "Playoffs never get old, never," he said. "It just doesn't. It's better than Christmas. "It's pride that makes you want to win. We want to win. We don't feel like we have to win or else. There's not that sense [of urgency] there. The organization, I don't think, makes us feel that way." The Braves are trying to break new ground. No team has ever lost the first two games at home and come back to win a league championship series since the format switched to best-of-7 in 1985. San Diego's Jim Leyritz knows such a comeback is possible. He played for the 1996 New York Yankees, who lost twice to the Braves at Yankee Stadium to start the World Series before winning the next four games. Leyritz was a postseason hero then, just as he was against Houston in the division series last week. It was his three-run homer off former Atlanta relief ace Mark Wohlers in the eighth inning of Game 4 that tied the game, and the Yankees went on to an 8-6, 10-inning victory. "I think they know they have their backs to the wall a little bit," Leyritz said before Padres worked out briefly Friday at Qualcomm Stadium. "I'm sure they're thinking, 'If we can get home, we have a chance to win this thing.' "Our goal is to get that third game. If we can do that, I like our chances. Sometimes, it's not always the best team on paper that wins." Braves manager Bobby Cox believes if his team is a little more productive offensively, it will be fine. "Getting one run a night is not going to cut it too many nights," he said. The Braves, who won 106 games during the regular season, hit just .172 in losing 3-2 in 10 innings and then 3-0. "We can't feel great, being down 0-2," Cox said. "But we have the type of club and pitching that can easily roll off four in a row." The Braves must win four of the next five games to advance. And the next three will be played on San Diego's home turf, where capacity crowds of close to 65,000 are expected for each game. Neither game in Atlanta was sold out, and dreary conditions kept the crowds down even more. Maddux will be hard-pressed to be more effective than John Smoltz and Tom Glavine, who combined to allow three runs in 13 innings. "I thought they both pitched brilliant games," Cox said of Smoltz and Glavine. However, as Cox knows, San Diego's Andy Ashby and Kevin Brown were just a little bit better.
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