Phillies Stand Pat and Win the Hand : NL Game 4: They keep Thompson in left rather than pinch-hit, and he makes crucial catch.

When Game 4 was finally over, when the Phillies--their backs against a wall--had finally beaten the Braves, 2-1, Sunday night to even the National League Championship series at two games each, the key to the game came down to one decision.

Leaving Milt Thompson in left field.

Thompson, a left-handed hitter, turned to peer at his manager, Jim Fregosi, when left-hander Kent Mercker was brought in to relieve John Smoltz in the seventh inning. With the Phillies ahead by 2-1 and runners on first and second, Thompson thought Fregosi might pinch-hit with the right-handed Pete Incaviglia.

“So as soon as Mercker finished warming up, I hurried to the plate,” Thompson said.

But it wasn’t what Thompson did at the plate that inning, because he didn’t do anything. It was what he did in the field in the eighth inning, when, with Braves on first and second, he made a leaping catch of a drive by Mark Lemke and crashed into the wall, saving the Phillie victory.

“I knew it was hit well and I got a good jump on it, getting back by the warning track,” Thompson said. “Once it hit my glove, I knew I had 2 1/2 steps before you hit the wall. So when I saw it in my glove I said, ‘Just hold on . . .’ ”

Such defense was crucial given the Phillies’ inability to score. They struck out 15 times, with Smoltz striking out 10. And those Phillies who reached base were usually left there--15 times in all Sunday night. The teams combined to strand an NL playoff record 26.

It was pitcher Danny Jackson, an .077 hitter, who drove in the winning run in the fourth inning, when he laced a Smoltz fastball up the middle--scoring Thompson, who had doubled.

Jackson, who won 23 games in 1988 for the Cincinnati Reds, became the first pitcher to start a playoff game with four different clubs, and this was one of his more memorable games.

The last time Jackson had faced the Braves in the playoffs was last year when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates and he lasted only 1 2/3 innings.

“The media made me the focus tonight, they never gave me a chance and kept bringing up last year and September,” Jackson said. “Smoltz had a similar record (in September), but I never had a chance. I let my pitching do the talking.

Jackson lasted 7 2/3 innings Sunday night, pitching out of jams all night with a slider and fastball while only walking two and striking out six.

“It’s the best I have seen him throw the ball since he pitched for Kansas City in the American League,” Brave Manager Bobby Cox said.

It was Cox who made the deal to send Thompson and Steve Bedrosian to the Phillies in 1986 for Pete Smith and Ozzie Virgil. Bedrosian has since returned to the Braves, and after the eighth inning Sunday, they probably wished Thompson had, too.

It was exactly the situation that closer Mitch Williams isn’t suited for: coming into a game with runners on first and second. Or runners on base, period. Williams puts enough runners on.

But with his starter running out of gas, Braves on first and second with two out in the eighth inning, Fregosi brought in Williams.

“I usually save Mitch for the ninth, but I though this was a must win game for us, so I got him up in case Danny got in trouble,” Fregosi said.

Williams had pinch-hitter Bill Pecota down 0-and-2, but Pecota hit a liner to shallow center field. Then, Williams, saying he was going to try to go to second base, tried to bare hand a bunt by Otis Nixon that took a high bounce, and he bobbled it.

Now he had runners on first and second with none out, and there was a meeting at the mound.

“I wanted him to make sure we got an out if a ball was bunted,” Fregosi said.

Jeff Blauser got a bunt down the third base line, and Williams fielded it and fired a wide throw to third baseman Kim Batiste that nearly pulled him off the bag, but Pecota was out. Ron Gant then grounded into a double play, giving Williams the save and ensuring that his team will go back to Philadelphia for Game 6.

“It was a tremendous lift, but we had a lot of opportunities to score but didn’t,” Thompson said. “Smoltz threw a couple of split-finger fastballs, and we hadn’t seen those before.”

John Kruk had doubled, tripled, homered and knocked in four runs before Sunday night. But he struck out four times, the most any player has in an NL playoff. In the sixth inning, after Lenny Dykstra had battled back from an 0-and-2 count to draw a walk, and Mickey Morandini had grounded up the middle to move Dykstra to second, Kruk grounded to first.

It was the second time Kruk had stranded Dykstra on second base. Dykstra, who was on base his first four consecutive at-bats with two singles and two walks, was stranded each time.

The Phillies, who scored 877 runs this season, the most by a NL team since the 1962 Giants scored 878, had stranded 10 runners on base through six innings, with five of them in scoring position.

But in the seventh, Cox wasn’t going to take any chances. For the fifth time in the game, the Phillies had runners on first and second, this time with one out. Smoltz, who had struck out 10, had also walked five and given up eight hits. That’s when Cox brought in Mercker, who got out of the inning.

But it was Fregosi’s decision to leave in Thompson that ended up being the game-winner.

“I never take my defense out when we are ahead in the game,” Fregosi said.

* IT’S WILD: Almost in defiance of logic, no runs scored in Mitch Williams’ 1 1/3 innings of relief. C13