Live from Atlanta: “Maddux Unplugged.”
On one of the rare nights when Greg Maddux looked like just another former Cub, the defending National League champion Atlanta Braves handed Florida a 5-3 victory in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.
Maddux, a four-time Cy Young Award winner, was betrayed by his fielders on three separate occasions in the first three innings, leading to five unearned runs that determined the outcome. But Maddux had to accept part of the blame himself, giving up two-out hits in the first and third.
In 232 2/3 innings in the regular season, Maddux allowed only one unearned run, but he gave up five the first three innings of Game 1.
“Weird, isn’t it?” Maddux said. “Go figure. Weird game.”
With Maddux’s teammates letting down defensively and Florida taking advantage of every break it received, the Marlins sneaked away with the biggest win in their brief franchise history as they attempt to advance to the World Series in only their fifth year of existence.
Moises Alou, whose wife, Austria, is expecting their third child any day now, drove in four runs to lead the Marlins. Alou’s bases-loaded double in the first set the tone for the night, and Kevin Brown pitched six innings of five-hit ball to give the Marlins first blood in the seven-game series.
“With most teams, it’s probably a huge factor,” said Florida manager Jim Leyland. “With a team like the Braves, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot. This is a team that was down 3-1 to St. Louis last year and came back and won the (NLCS).”
Maddux had given up as many as five runs in a game only twice before in 33 starts in ’97. His performance was eerily similar to his first start in last year’s NLCS against St. Louis, when he allowed eight runs, including five unearned runs, in an 8-3 Game 2 loss to the Cardinals. Maddux’s career record in NLCS play dropped to 3-4.
“I thought he pitched very well,” said Atlanta manager Bobby Cox. “The first inning was just a nightmare. I thought he pitched good under the circumstances, fighting back all night.”
With Marlins runners on first and second and two outs in the first, Atlanta first baseman Fred McGriff muffed an easy grounder off Jeff Conine’s bat to load the bases. Alou then hit one toward third that Chipper Jones made a weak backhanded attempt on, waving as the ball flew past him for a bases-clearing double.
Florida led 3-1 in the third when Kenny Lofton’s three-base error on a long fly by Gary Sheffield opened the doors for two more runs.
“I got there (to the wall) and I went a long ways,” Lofton said. “I was looking for the ball and the wall. That had something to do with it.”
Alou’s groundout brought Sheffield home and Charles Johnson’s two-out double down the left-field line scored Alou to make it 5-1. The Braves got solo home runs by Jones in the third and Ryan Klesko in the sixth, but managed only five hits on the night.
Florida beat the Braves 8 out of 12 games in the regular season, but were still prohibitive underdogs in the NLCS. Now they’ve stolen the homefield advantage in the first game and can really put the Braves in a hole if Alex Fernandez pitches as well in Game 2 as he did in the Marlins’ division series clincher against San Francisco last Friday.
“It’s one loss,” Maddux warned.
But one uncharacteristic giveaway by the mighty Atlanta Braves.
