Jones Puts One Down for Braves : The Year of the Home Run? Not With Braves on Mound

At New York Yankee games, fans reach over the fence for home runs.

At Atlanta games, fans don’t get much chance.

No homer has been hit off a Braves’ pitcher since these playoffs began. No Dodger hit one, home or away. And no St. Louis Cardinal hit one, in Atlanta’s 4-2 victory Wednesday night.

I wonder if some American Leaguer will be able to, in the World Series. This could be a job for Brady and Bobby, or Bernie and Cecil.

John Smoltz held the Cardinals to two extra-base hits--one by the opposing pitcher--in combining with Mark Wohlers on a five-hitter. That means the Braves have now given up 19 hits in four games.

And they call this the Year of the Hitter?

It kind of makes one wonder what St. Louis Manager Tony La Russa was thinking when he let light-hitting Luis Alicea swing away in the seventh inning.

With nobody out, runners on first and second represented important runs to the Cardinals, who finally had Smoltz on the ropes. One run was in, the game was tied, 2-2, and Willie McGee was ready to pinch-hit for the pitcher.

Best pitcher in baseball on the hill.

A lifetime .255 hitter at the plate.

“The infield was in,” La Russa explained, “and he is a good fastball hitter.”

He hit a good fastball, all right . . . right into left fielder Ryan Klesko’s glove.

No one was more surprised than Smoltz, who said, “That was a big at-bat for me. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work out.”

Neither did the game.

Smoltz worked out of the jam, after St. Louis began the inning single, single, single.

And then the Braves won the game with a two-run eighth, by asking a great hitter--Chipper Jones--to do what?

Bunt.

Chipper hadn’t sacrificed but once all season, but, just like Tony Gwynn in a San Diego playoff game, he didn’t faint when a bunt sign was flashed. Mark Lemke was on base. Chipper was happy to chip in.

“We thought we’d take a crack at it,” Atlanta’s Bobby Cox said, using a baseball manager’s tried-and-true, I-don’t-need-no-computer, let’s-take-a-crack-at-it strategy.

Jones’ bunt took a crazy hop and was good for a single. Andruw Jones pinch-ran for Lemke, and the Jones boys came home on Javy Lopez’s busted-bat single.

Who needs home runs?

“When you spend the rest of the night thinking about this game,” La Russa lamented, “you’ll think about the way those two runs scored in the eighth.

“It’s gonna grate at you.”

Those Braves, they do the little things to win. They can hit home runs--as they demonstrated to the Dodgers--but they also can chip away at you. For those of you scoring at home, that’s how you go to five National League championship series in a row.

They nail you when you least expect it.

For example, take Jeff Blauser’s one-out single off Andy Benes in the fifth. Blauser had gone hitless against Benes in his last 36 trips.

It turned into two runs. Smoltz was so annoyed with himself at failing to bunt, he smashed his helmet in the dugout. But it didn’t matter, because Marquis Grissom doubled off Ozzie Smith’s glove, and Lemke delivered a two-run single.

You give Atlanta four runs, the game’s probably over.

“Somebody said when [the game was over], it’s about time I had a pretty easy game,” Smoltz joked.

I don’t know who’s going to hit the Braves’ pitching, or how.

For the playoffs, the Dodgers and Cardinals together are now hitting a cool .149.

No homers. One triple.

Atlanta first baseman Fred McGriff said, “As you can see, it’s not just the Dodgers. A lot of teams struggle with our pitching.”

If the Braves go to the World Series again, maybe Brady Anderson or Bobby Bonilla or some Baltimore Oriole will belt one at Camden, clear out of the Yards. Or, it could be Bernie Williams, Cecil Fielder or some Bronx Bomber who will send one to the Yankee Stadium warning track, into the hungry hands of a 12-year-old fan.

But I wouldn’t waste all night leaning over the fence, waiting.