Leibrandt Fails to Bury Painful Series Memory : Braves: Winfield’s double revives thoughts of homer he gave up that sent the series to a seventh game last year.

Charlie Leibrandt had tried to close the door firmly on the past, but it intruded on his thoughts Saturday night because of parallels too eerie to ignore.

A year ago, in the sixth game of the World Series, Leibrandt relieved starter Steve Avery and gave up a run in the 11th inning that deprived the Atlanta Braves of a World Series championship. On Saturday, but for a few details, Leibrandt relived his painful experience when he gave up the two-run double to Dave Winfield in the 11th inning that led the Toronto Blue Jays to a 4-3 victory over the Braves and a six-game Series triumph.

“I almost pitched well enough. I pitched well enough to get within one pitch of getting us out of the inning and getting us up to bat,” a subdued Leibrandt said in the silence of the Braves’ clubhouse. “If I make a little better pitch, who knows what happens?”

A year ago, it was a home run by Kirby Puckett against Leibrandt that erased Atlanta’s 3-2 series lead and set up the Minnesota Twins’ dramatic seventh-game victory. This time, the ending was less dramatic but no less painful.

“I don’t like to dwell on the past too much. What happened last year was unfortunate,” said Leibrandt, who hadn’t pitched in the Series until Saturday. “This year, I was grateful for the opportunity to get in and pitch in the World Series. I don’t like to compare the two.

“I’m disappointed I didn’t help us win the World Series. That’s all I can think. We’ve got a pretty good team, but Toronto is just a little bit better this year. We played a lot of close ballgames. We were close, but we didn’t do what was called for in key situations. We didn’t get the big hit when we needed to, it seemed, except it looked like tonight we might pull it out.”

Instead, the winning hit went to Winfield.

Leibrandt, who entered the game in the 10th inning, got Jimmy Key to pop up for the first out and then brushed Devon White with a pitch. Roberto Alomar’s single put runners on first and second, as Jeff Reardon resumed warming up in the Atlanta bullpen. But Leibrandt wasn’t thinking about being pulled, and Manager Bobby Cox left him in to pitch to Joe Carter and Winfield, both right-handed hitters.

“That wasn’t going through my mind. Once I got Carter, I just started thinking about Winfield,” said Leibrandt, who was 11-5 this season in a starting role and pitched the Braves’ division-clinching triumph over the Giants Sept. 29, ending the season with 23 consecutive scoreless innings.

“I didn’t see any reason to expect I’d come out.”

Cox saw no reason to take Leibrandt out. “(Reardon) was going to be my next pitcher if the game was still tied,” he said. “I went with Charlie because he gets right-handers out. I felt confident he could get him out.”

Winfield, who had walked his first time up but flied out the next three times and grounded to second with a runner on second in the ninth inning, worked the count to 3-and-2. Leibrandt knew exactly what he wanted to do.

“I need to make it down and out of the strike zone,” Leibrandt said. “I wanted it to be down and away, but it got too much of the plate.”

It got enough for Winfield to slash it into the left-field corner, scoring White and Alomar.

“It was a changeup,” Leibrandt said. “I felt I had to go with my best pitch. I just got it up a little bit.”

His teammates, dry-eyed as he was, didn’t blame Leibrandt for the loss of the game or the Series.

“Things just happen,” second baseman Mark Lemke said. “We’ve got to remember the positive things guys did. You can’t say, ‘This cost us,’ or ‘That cost us.’ There’s nothing for us to feel down about.”