BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : NATIONAL LEAGUE : Drabek Has a Hard Sell to Pitch Again

Unless Doug Drabek can prove to Pittsburgh Pirate Manager Jim Leyland that his strained left hamstring is completely healed, which is unlikely, he will not make his next scheduled playoff start, Leyland said Thursday.

Leyland said the starting pitcher in Game 5 probably would be either Bob Walk or Randy Tomlin. The pitcher who does not make that start will start in Game 4.

“Doug says he will be ready, but I will not trust what Doug says,” Leyland said. “I will kick him (in the hamstring) 10 times before I put him out there, and the first time he flinches, he is not pitching.”

Leyland understands that injured players often do not know what is good for themselves, and he will act without considering their opinions.

“We will do what is right. We will not be greedy about this,” Leyland said. “I will not let Doug go out there and alter his delivery because of the hamstring and then do something that will hurt his arm for the rest of his life. I will not do that.

“Doug will want to pitch. But will we let him pitch? I don’t know.”

Drabek injured the hamstring while running the bases in the sixth inning of Game 1.

He pitched six shutout innings in that game to lower his career championship earned-run average to 1.20, third-best in National League playoff history among pitchers with 20 or more innings.

Leyland probably will make last-minute decisions on Tomlin, a left-hander, and Walk, a right-hander. Walk pitched three innings Wednesday, but Leyland said he could be ready Sunday.

“Because I am throwing two left-handers (Zane Smith and John Smiley) back to back, I don’t want to throw another left-hander if it seems their right-handed hitters are getting comfortable in there,” Leyland said. “In that case, it would be Walk on Sunday and Tomlin on Monday. But if their right-handed hitters are struggling, I’ll pitch Tomlin Sunday and hold Walk for Monday.”

Tomlin, 25, held left-handed hitters to a .172 average with one home run in 134 at-bats during his first full major league season.

Walk has dominated NL West teams during the past two seasons with a 9-1 record and a 2.69 ERA. Both losses were by one run.

Tom Glavine, the Atlanta Brave ace who has gone 4-3 with a 4.50 ERA since Sept. 1, admitted Thursday that he has suffered from a “dead arm.”

Glavine, the loser in Game 1 after giving up four runs in six innings, has pitched a career-high 252 2/3 innings. His previous high was 214 2/3 innings last season, the first time in his career that he had pitched more than 200.

“I haven’t felt great in my last four or five starts,” Glavine said. “Once I’m out there, I feel OK. There isn’t anything wrong with my arm. It’s just the usual wear-and-tear.”

Glavine admitted that he no longer throws between starts. He also said it takes the full four days between starts for his arm to recover, a sure sign of a “dead arm.”

The Braves will be painfully aware of Otis Nixon’s absence this week, especially considering that he played in all 12 regular-season games between the Braves and the Pirates, helping Atlanta to win nine times. Nixon, who has been suspended for a drug violation, batted .306 against the Pirates, with 10 stolen bases, and scored 12 of the Braves’ 71 runs in the 12 games.

Bobby Bonds, the former major league star and father of the Pirates’ Barry Bonds, said he thinks baseball is still biased against hiring minority managers.

Bonds, who has not worked in baseball since coaching for the Cleveland Indians several years ago, said: “Look how many managers have been fired recently. And how many minorities have been hired in their place? I would try to be a manager, but I know I don’t have a chance. Let’s stop playing head games and admit it: The minority hiring is not there.”

Earlier this week, Barry Bonds implied that the Pirate front office was biased toward whites. Larry Doughty, Pirate general manager, did not comment on the accusations because he said he did not hear Bonds’ comments.