LaValliere, Lemke and Lind Lead the Way

You expect to find them in the Yellow Pages, under the listing for attorneys. Lemke, LaValliere and Lind. It’s a given that their license plates would be something cute, like 3-L Law.

Well, think again. Mark Lemke, Mike LaValliere and Jose Lind are leading men in the National League Championship Series, the only ongoing struggle in baseball’s muted postseason festivities. Two light-hitting second basemen and a catcher who has been confined to the dugout by the preponderance of left-handed starting pitchers have produced the winning hits in the three one-run contests that have tipped the playoffs in favor of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Lind, in fact, leads all players in runs batted in with three, this despite a .167 batting average.

Consider the incongruity of such a situation. Pittsburgh boasts Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds, perhaps the most lethal batting combination in major-league baseball. The Bucs have Andy Van Slyke and Jay Bell and Steve Buechele. But, in squeezing past the Atlanta Braves, 3-2 and 1-0, in Games 4 and 5, they needed run-scoring singles from LaValliere, suddenly reduced to pinch-hitting duties after sharing the catcher’s position with Don Slaught during the regular season, and the usually overmatched Lind.

The chatty Bonds, for whom .167 would be an improvement as the series resumes Wednesday night at Three Rivers Stadium, did take credit of sorts for Lind’s hit that did in Tom Glavine on Monday afternoon. As he disclosed in his daily ghost-written column appearing in the Pittsburgh Press yesterday, he passed a batting tip from his father, Bobby, to the infielder before the game.

“That goes to show that, with this ballclub, we have family members, fans, coaching staff, the whole unity of this ballclub helping us along the way,” Bonds noted. “That goes to show again sometimes it just doesn’t take 25 guys on this team. Sometimes you need 57,000 people in the stadium, and that 57,000th person will give you a little tip.”

By now, more than a few of those fans might be inclined to forgo the tips and volunteer for duty. When was the last time you heard baseball people spend more time discussing tomahawk chops than swings of the bat? The Pirates and Braves finished first and second in the league in runs scored this season, yet each has been shut out 1-0 in this series.

It marks the first championship series in either league, dating to 1969, that has featured a pair of 1-0 games. In the 1966 World Series, the Baltimore Orioles of Dave McNally, Jim Palmer and Wally Bunker posted two consecutive 1-0 victories over the Los Angeles Dodgers of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Claude Osteen. Seventeen years earlier, the Brooklyn Dodgers split a pair of 1-0 games in the World Series, with Preacher Roe besting Vic Raschi after Allie Reynolds outdueled Don Newcombe.

For those wondering, there is no pitcher approaching the stature of Koufax, Drysdale, Palmer or even McNally in this series. At 21, Atlanta’s Steve Avery has a chance to become a dominating left-hander, but he has a long, long way to go if he hopes to match the accomplishments of Reynolds, Raschi and Newcombe. For the most part, the pitching has been effective and underwhelming.

Nowhere is that more obvious than in a study of Zane Smith’s linescore. Smith was the losing pitcher in the first 1-0 game and the winning pitcher in the second. Yet, the man has yielded 15 hits, walked three and hit one batter in 14 1-3 innings. Remarkably, he might have gone unscathed but for Lemke’s bad-bounce double in Game 2.

The two teems have stranded so many baserunners that they start the game playing, perhaps even praying, for one run. Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox was so desperate to score in Game 5 that he ordered a suicide squeeze bunt by Glavine with the bases loaded, one out and a 2-and-2 count on the pitcher in the second inning.

Alas, it also surprised Glavine, who said he thought the squeeze was a possibility but not after the second strike. He got the message only after seeing Brian Hunter break for the plate and offered a futile swipe at a low slider he probably couldn’t have bunted with a week’s notice. Incidentally, the next batter, Lonnie Smith, had led off the game with a sharp single and had a lifetime average of .429 vs. Smith at the start of the series.

But that’s the nature of the 1991 NLCS. Leyland let Roger Mason, an obscure right-handed relief pitcher, bat with a man on third in the ninth inning Monday because he wanted him to pitch to lefthanded batters David Justice and Sid Bream, a likely pinch hitter. Cox fooled Leyland. He kept Bream on the bench even after the Braves placed two men on base. The final showdown of a bizarre contest pitted journeyman Mason against the dreaded Jeff Blauser.

If you thought you were getting Gossage against Yastrzemski or Eckersley against Gibson, you were sadly mistaken.

It followed by a scant few hours a game decided by another titanic matchup, Mark Wohlers vs. LaValliere. This series is being decided by guys you can’t tell without a scorecard.

Maybe a great player or play will seize the occasion Wednesday night. If not, my vote for Most Valuable Performer of the series goes not to a person but to an inanimate object.

Third base lured Doug Drabek to his downfall in Game 1, served as the confluence of ball, fielder and runner in the critical play of Game 2, coaxed an ill-advised Justice throw that prolonged Game 4 and then eluded the man’s groping right foot in the signature moment of Game 5.