Overlooked in Scoring Barrage, Smoltz Provides Different Power

It was a matchup of likely Cy Young Award winners, but it was over inside of three innings.

John Smoltz, continuing to turn October into a personal showcase, survived by pitching out of problems in the first two innings, while Andy Pettitte, new to this thing called the World Series, was gone after 2 1/3 Sunday night.

The Atlanta Braves, a reincarnated Murderer’s Row over their last four games, provided Smoltz with a 2-0 lead after two innings and an 8-0 lead after three and Smoltz again reopened and rewrote the postseason record book.

He provided a six-inning foundation characteristic of baseball’s best pitching staff as the Braves bombed Pettitte and the New York Yankees, 12-1, in the Series opener.

The St. Louis Cardinals, blown out of the National League’s championship series after building a 3-1 lead, weren’t looking so bad as the Braves made it four in a row, a span in which they have outscored their postseason opponents, 44-2.

“I tip my hat to our hitters,” Smoltz said. “I’d hate to have to pitch against them as hot as they are right now.”

Andruw Jones was the hottest of the hot in the showcase that is Yankee Stadium. The 19-year-old left fielder hit two home runs and drove in five runs to do some record setting of his own. Smoltz?

--He is now 4-0 with a 1.20 earned-run average for his four October starts this year, tying the record for most victories in a postseason, set by Dave Stewart (1989) and shared by Jack Morris (1991) and Orel Hershiser (1995).

--He is 9-1 for 17 postseason starts, tying Catfish Hunter for third on the all-time postseason victory list, one behind the co-leaders, Stewart and Whitey Ford.

--He increased his record postseason strikeout total to 102 with four in six innings.

“It means a lot to me,” Smoltz said of his postseason success, “but I’ve also had numerous opportunities.

“I love this time of year and looked on pitching here as the ultimate challenge and platform, but I also take great pride in what I accomplished in the regular season, proving and reproving myself.”

He was 24-8 in a breakthrough season while Pettitte was 21-8, but this is a season in itself, a new test for the second-year Yankee left-hander while Smoltz has been through it and reiterated:

“If there’s a game to be won in October, I want to be the one out there trying to win it.”

Working on six days’ rest, he was that much more pumped, or as pitching coach Leo Mazzone said: “John was ready to unload some heat.”

Smoltz had a dazzling strikeout-to-walk ratio of 276-55 during the regular season, but the adrenaline was difficult to control in this one. He walked Bernie Williams and Tino Martinez with two out in the first, but got Cecil Fielder on a fly to deep right. He walked Paul O’Neill with one out in the second and Jim Leyritz with two out, but got Derek Jeter to ground into a force play.

This was while it was still a game, and Smoltz said: “The way our guys are hitting I just wanted to put us in a position to score first. With the extra day of rest I just needed a while to find my rhythm. I didn’t feel any pressure until I put it on myself with the walks, but I was able to step back, take a breath and rely on my postseason experience.”

He retired nine in a row before Jeter walked with two out in the fifth and Wade Boggs followed with a run-scoring double.

A leadoff single by Tino Martinez in the sixth was the only other hit Smoltz allowed in a 104-pitch stint that Manager Bobby Cox figured was enough, considering Smoltz might have to come back in Game 5.

Of course, with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and Denny Neagle on deck, Smoltz may have made his last 1996 start.

Atlanta pitchers have held the Dodgers, Cardinals and Yankees to a .181 postseason batting average, reinforcing Mazzone’s belief that in a five-year run of domination his staff “has already established itself as one of the greatest ever.”

Smoltz was coming off the back-to-the-wall Game 5 victory in St. Louis. The score of that one was 14-0. He admitted that pitching becomes easier when the Braves are scoring they way they are now because it changes the approach of the opposing hitters, who tend to try to do too much. The Yankees did little, which wasn’t new with Smoltz on the mound in October, and the right-hander said:

“It’s a dream come true to pitch and win here. More than that, we won the one game we had to have in New York. Tomorrow becomes a bonus.”