Atlanta Takes Anger Out on Toronto : Braves: Pregame meeting clears the air after Bream and Justice criticize teammates for not being focused.

On a day they scored as many runs as in their previous three World Series games combined, the Atlanta Braves took some big swings.

Sid Bream chided the team for not being focused.

Mark Lemke wanted to know what Bream was talking about.

David Justice criticized the team for being asleep.

Bobby Cox cursed Justice’s remark.

And then the Braves took the field and hammered somebody else, the Toronto Blue Jays, in a 7-2 victory in Game 5 of the World Series.

“I don’t think it hurts to get a little upset,” Jeff Blauser said.

The air in the clubhouse was heavy enough to convince Cox to hold a rare pregame meeting. He and a couple of veterans emphasized, among other things, that they shouldn’t let off-field problems bother them.

“The tone was, ‘Hey, just relax,’ ” said Otis Nixon, who left the meeting and promptly hit the game’s first pitch into the left-field corner for a double.

Nixon broke out of a four-for-28 slump with three hits, two runs scored and two stolen bases. The Braves have 13 stolen bases, the most by a team in a World Series since 1909.

Talk about one team’s tension becoming another team’s headache.

“Every time we have a team meeting, something positive comes out of it,” Justice said. “Maybe we should have a team meeting before Game 6 and 7.”

Said Bream: “You can feel good pressure and bad pressure. I think tonight, what we felt was good pressure.”

The hard feelings, which have simmered for several days during three consecutive losses, finally boiled over Thursday morning on an Atlanta radio station.

Justice, in a interview, criticized his teammates for their attitude during the 2-1 loss in Game 4.

“(Wednesday) night, our bench was dead,” Justice told the station. “They looked like they just showed up. Like it was a spring training game.”

Cox, the Braves’ manager, initially tried to downplay the statements.

But finally he grew angry and blurted, “That’s a crock of . . . .”

The incident furthered speculation that Justice, who has had occasional battles with management, will be traded this winter to make room for free agent Barry Bonds.

The potential for trouble in the clubhouse became more visible during other pregame interviews.

In a formal interview session, Bream said his teammates were not “focused.”

“I just really don’t think we have been focused, not since the last couple of weeks of the season,” he said. “We got that big lead in the (National League) West, then we slacked off. Then we got that 3-1 lead over Pittsburgh in the playoffs, and we relaxed again.”

Bream added, “I’m not saying we aren’t going out there with intensity, but . . . when we step between the lines, we don’t feel in our hearts that we can win the game.”

Bream said in some way, the Braves’ problems began last spring, when they were still riding an emotional high from 1991.

“I think at the start of the season we were lackadaisical, and at times, we just haven’t had it going,” Bream said.

He was asked if winning Game 7 of the playoffs in the ninth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates helped the Braves. Surprisingly, he said no.

“You would think that it would have had a snowball effect, but it hasn’t,” he said. “We can’t just turn it on and off.”

Justice may have been one of the targets of Bream’s criticism.

When Bream was asked about Justice’s comments before Game 4 that referred to Jimmy Key as “just another left-hander,” Bream bristled. Key gave up one run in 7 2/3 innings in the Blue Jays victory.

“Key is no ordinary Joe, and to think that Cito would send out an ordinary Joe in a big game . . . well, that’s a hard thing to think,” Bream said.

Several Braves disagreed with Bream’s assessment.

“Shoot, we were within an inning of being two games up on these guys,” Lemke said. “You can’t be up 2-0 and not be focused.”

Said Jeff Blauser: “In my mind, that’s just frustration. We can have a lot of excuses, but we’re just not getting it done.”

After they finally got it done Thursday, Bream warned that it was only the beginning.

“Like I said about turning it on and off . . . I hope this is a start,” he said. “I hope this is something we can grow into.”

Or, as Terry Pendleton said, it doesn’t matter if there is controversy over the words “intensity” and “focus,” as long as the team is also using the words, “victory” and “parade.”

“Intensity and focus is big, don’t get me wrong,” Pendleton said. “(But) If we didn’t have it tonight, I don’t care, as long as we won.”