'A Big Stone to Conquer' : Dodgers Open NL Playoffs Today Against the Braves

By BOB NIGHTENGALE

Oct. 2, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The Dodgers kept insisting that they would restrain themselves. There would be no need to drink champagne, let alone douse one another with it. Once they had won the National League West title, they would have a quiet, satisfying moment of gratification.

“I don’t think anybody ever thought this would happen,” first baseman Eric Karros said. “I mean, we were talking about a quiet celebration. No one figured we wouldn’t be celebrating at all.

“I guarantee you that of all the teams in the playoffs, we were the only ones who never got a chance to celebrate.

“Hopefully, we can still have that opportunity.”

The Dodgers, who finished the season by losing their last four games and blowing the division title, will try to make amends today when they open the National League playoffs against the defending World Series champion Atlanta Braves at Dodger Stadium.

“We’re going in with not so much that we have something to prove but that we’re not satisfied with what we’ve done this year,” Karros said.

“We won the division last year, and I think some guys were just happy to be there. Look where it got us. We lose three straight to Cincinnati and we’re out.

“The pain of losing in three to Cincinnati was much greater than the satisfaction of winning the division. It was a sickening feeling, and to be honest, it still hasn’t gone away.

“And it won’t until we win.”

The Dodgers, a confident if not cocky team the last two months of the season, collapsed the final week when they lost the series finale to San Francisco, then were swept in three games by the San Diego Padres.

The question now is whether they can regroup in time for this best-of-five series. Manager Bill Russell called his team together before their Tuesday workout and reminded them that one bad stretch shouldn’t shake their confidence. Certainly, he said, they must have done something right to get into the playoffs.

“We can beat these guys,” Russell said. “They can be beat. We know we can beat them because we’ve already done it this year. And we can beat them again.

“Look, we have a short series. The first two games are at home. Really, everything’s in our favor.”

Well, not quite everything.

Although the Dodgers led the league with a 3.46 earned-run average, they are facing a team with a starting rotation that will have won the last six Cy Young awards. John Smoltz, the man who will oppose Dodger starter Ramon Martinez today, just so happens to be 24-8 this season and a shoo-in for the Cy Young.

“He has a 95-mph fastball,” Karros said. “Everything he throws is on the outside part of the plate, and he has a nasty slider. Other than that, he doesn’t have much. . . .

“If we can ever beat John Smoltz, it’s huge, just because he’s so dominating.”

Smoltz was 1-1 against the Dodgers this season, but he yielded only two runs and 14 hits in 16 innings, striking out 20.

“I enjoy pitching against them because they’re a very aggressive right-handed hitting team,” Smoltz said. “They can make you look real ugly, or real good. You’ve got to point to two guys in every lineup that you don’t want to let beat you, and those guys are [Mike] Piazza and Karros.

“I think they’re a good team. I mean, you look around, and there’s not a team in this format that cannot win the World Series. There’s not one team that’s head and shoulders above anyone else.

“And in a best-of-five series, anybody can win three in a row or lose three in a row.”

The Dodgers discovered that a year ago. They went into their series against the Reds fully expecting to meet the Braves in the National League championship series. They were gone in three games.

“I think what happened last year is that we were just happy to get into the playoffs,” third baseman Tim Wallach said. “It showed. You saw the way we celebrated. We celebrated hard.

“But I think we learned a lot from that. There’s a bigger goal than just getting there.

“That’s why I don’t think anybody in here even cared whether we play one team or another. That’s not a cockiness, or an arrogance but a confidence.”

It’s this confidence that the Braves and everyone else heard about this spring. The Dodgers told the world that they would be the team to be reckoned with this season. They knew that the road to the National League pennant went through Atlanta, but they wanted to let the Braves know that they would making reservations.

“Ever since spring training, when they were saying that nothing less than a World Series appearance would be satisfying to them, it got our attention,” Braves’ third baseman Chipper Jones said. “I mean, big time.

“To be honest, that kind of scared us just because they had the confidence to say that. That’s got to scare you. I guess in the back of our mind, we knew we’d be facing them at some time.

“Well, they got what they wanted. Here we are.”

The Dodgers still are convinced they can play with the Braves, even though they expected to be playing in St. Louis. The hotel reservations were made. The team charter was scheduled . . . Everything was canceled Sunday when they lost, 2-0, in 11 innings, culminating a week in which they batted .202 and scored five runs in their last 39 innings.

“Let’s be honest about this, San Diego came right in and kicked our butts,” Dodger second baseman Delino DeShields said. “We wanted to win that division. And anyone that says we didn’t is just lying to himself.

“But the only damage it caused is the perception. People view you differently when you’re a champion, and we didn’t win a damn thing. We can’t have amnesia and forget how good we played the last two months just to get here.

“We can beat these boys. Now’s as good a time as any to prove it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Series Glance

Today--Atlanta (Smoltz 24-8) at Dodgers (Martinez 15-6), 1 p.m., Channel 5, ESPN

Thursday--Atlanta (Maddux 15-11) at Dodgers (Valdes 15-7), 5 p.m., Channel 11

Saturday--Dodgers (Nomo 16-11) at Atlanta (Glavine 15-10), 1:15 p.m., Channel 11

Sunday (If necessary)--Dodgers at Atlanta, 10 a.m., Channel 5, ESPN*

Monday (If necessary)--Dodgers at Atlanta, 4 p.m., Channel 11*

* if necessary

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By the Numbers