They came by the thousands, intent on helping their beloved Cubbies break a 58-year losing streak in postseason road games by transforming Turner Field into Wrigley Field South.
It worked.
Kerry Wood allowed only two hits and drove in the go-ahead runs with a double in the sixth inning off Russ Ortiz, leading the Chicago Cubs to a 4-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 1 of their NL division series Tuesday night.
The roar from all those Cubs fans was enormous when Wood drove in two runs with a drive to the wall in left-center, breaking a 1-all tie. Thousands of Chicago fans were part of the overflow crowd of 52,043 at Turner Field, which had its first postseason sellout in three years.
“They’ve been following us all year,” Wood said. “It sounded like half and half.”
Offense aside, it was Wood’s work on the mound that stood out. He throttled the high-scoring Braves, a team that produced six players with 20 homers and four with 100 RBIs during the regular season.
“He wanted this badly,” manager Dusty Baker said. “A good pitcher turned into a great pitcher.”
Wood struck out 11 in 71 1/43 innings. The only major slip-up came in the third, when Marcus Giles homered. Wood also went 2-for-4 at the plate, finishing with as many hits as he gave up in his first career postseason victory.
“To give up two hits in 71 1/43 innings to that team and also drive in the winning run, I’d say he was pretty locked in for this game,” said Joe Borowski.
Trailing 4-1, Atlanta scored a run and knocked out Wood without getting a hit. A questionable call at first on a potential inning-ending double play allowed the run.
Kyle Farnsworth retired Javy Lopez on a bases-loaded grounder.
“You know this can happen,” said Braves closer John Smoltz, who didn’t get a chance to perform his familiar task. “You can look at it like the glass is half-empty or half-full. We’ve won three out of four before.”
———-
Edited by the Sports staff of RedEye
