Braves Get Bogged Down

Parade route plans were being set up in the city. Champagne was ordered. Mike Bielecki was going to be a hero.

Something then went terribly awry Wednesday night for the Atlanta Braves’ World Series championship plans.

The New York Yankees emerged from the dead to pull off one of the greatest comeback victories in their franchise history with an implausible 8-6, 10-inning victory over the Braves in front of a stunned sellout crowd of 51,881 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

The Yankees, trailing 6-0 in the sixth inning, pulled off one of the most incredible victories in World Series history to tie this Series at two games apiece, leaving the Braves numb and the Yankees delirious.

“We blew the game,” Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said. “We just blew it, that’s it.”

The Yankees had never won a postseason game when they trailed by more than four runs. The Braves had never lost a postseason game in which they had led by at least four runs.

It was all made possible when utilityman Jim Leyritz hit a one-out, three-run homer in the eighth inning off Mark Wohlers that tied the game. The Yankees took their first lead of the game with two outs in the 10th when Brave left-handed reliever Steve Avery walked Wade Boggs with the bases loaded on a 3-and-2 count. They got an insurance run when first baseman Ryan Klesko dropped a pop fly.

And this Yankee fantasy became reality when left fielder Tim Raines caught Terry Pendleton’s fly ball with a runner aboard on the warning track. He fell down, but hung onto the ball for the final out.

The Yankees rushed onto the field, mobbed closer John Wetteland, and the small contingent of Yankee fans behind the dugout stood up and started taunting the Braves’ fans.

The World Series is assured of going back to New York.

“Coming back on anybody, much less the Atlanta Braves, is a tremendous lift for this club,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “We feel pretty good about ourselves. This is a confident team.”

The Yankees, who set a major league record with their seventh consecutive victory on the road, played 4 hours 17 minutes in a game that may forever be talked about in Yankee lore. It was the longest World Series game ever played, and a nightmare that could forever haunt the Braves if they lose this World Series.

“I lost it, I blew it,” Wohlers said. “I have a job to do and I get a hell of a lot of money to shut it down when Bobby gives me the ball. I just didn’t do it.”

Said Brave first baseman Fred McGriff: “I still can’t believe it. I don’t think any of us can.”

The Yankees had to keep pinching themselves.

“I’ll be remembering this game for the rest of my life,” Leyritz said. “It’s the greatest moment I’ve ever had in baseball. Really, it’s a dream.”

The Yankees, who scored three runs in the sixth inning when Atlanta starter Denny Neagle tired, still trailed 6-3 in the eighth. They failed to get a hit off middle reliever Bielecki, and now were facing Wohlers, who had saved 73 games in 80 opportunities in the last 1 1/2 years.

Still, the decision to bring in Wohlers in the eighth raised immediate questions. Wohlers had pitched two innings only once this season--yielding two runs Sept. 6 in a blown save against the New York Mets. Why not wait until the ninth?

“Why wouldn’t you want to bring in Wohlers?” Cox said. “He was well-rested. He’s been in the eighth inning many times. It was the right thing to do.

“It was the only thing to do.”

Charlie Hayes led off the eighth by hitting a dribbler down the third-base line. Chipper Jones waited for the ball to roll foul. It never did. Base hit.

That brought up Darryl Strawberry. He laced a single to left field, advancing Hayes to second.

Wohlers got what appeared to be a routine double-play ball to shortstop Rafael Belliard, who entered the game in the seventh for defensive purposes. Belliard booted the ball, dropped it, and was able to get only a force at second.

Leyritz, who came into the game in the sixth, stepped to the plate. He had hit only seven home runs in 265 at-bats during the season, going three months at one stretch without a homer.

Leyritz worked the count to 2-and-2, fighting off pitch after pitch, when Wohlers tried to slip a slider past him.

The ball hung over the plate and Leyritz sent it over the left-field wall for a three-run home run.

Tie game.

The crowd went numb.

“It was the right pitch,” Wohlers said, “but obviously the location was bad. Everything that happened after the eighth inning shouldn’t have happened. That ballgame should be put on my shoulders.”

Almost before Wohlers had time to take a deep breath, the Yankees were threatening again in the ninth. Wohlers got the first two outs, but the Yankees loaded the bases with two outs, bringing Mariano Duncan to the plate.

Duncan hit a screaming line drive to right field, but rookie Jermaine Dye ran in, snagged the ball, fell, but held the ball for the third out.

It looked like it might be the Yankees’ last hurrah when Mark Lemke hit a one-out single in the ninth and Chipper Jones walked on five pitches. That brought up Fred McGriff, and Torre immediately countered with left-handed pitcher Graeme Lloyd, who got McGriff to pop out with the bases loaded in Game 3.

This time, the man did from Australia did even better. He got an inning-ending double-play ball from McGriff, sending the game into extra innings.

Now, with Wohlers tired, Cox had to bring in Avery to start the 10th. He quickly got the first two outs, but then walked Tim Raines on four pitches. Derek Jeter followed with a single to left. Now, with Bernie Williams coming to the plate, Cox ordered Avery to intentionally walk him, loading the bases.

Torre went to his bench one more time and called on left-handed hitter Boggs, who has not started the last two games because of the Braves’ two left-handed starters.

Ball 1. Strike 1. Foul. Ball 2. Ball 3.

The next pitch was high, ball 4, and the go-ahead run scored. The Yankees got another run when Klesko lost Hayes’ pop-up in the lights, giving the Yankees an 8-6 lead.

“It was our game to win, we had our chances,” Avery said, “and I ended up costing us the game. I feel bad for everyone on the team.”

Wetteland came into the game, gave up a one-out single to Andruw Jones, a long fly ball out to Dye and the final out to Pendleton, ending the game.

Incredibly, despite a starting rotation that has yielded a 9.37 earned-run average this series, compared to the Braves’ 1.80 ERA, the Yankees are all even.

They were even able to forget starter Kenny Rogers’ miserable performance in which he yielded five hits and five runs in only two innings.

“This team won’t quit,” Rogers said. “It just won’t quit.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GAME 1--Atlanta 12, New York 1

GAME 2--Atlanta 4, New York 0

GAME 3--New York 5, Atlanta 2

GAME 4--New York 8, Atlanta 6 (10)

TONIGHT--New York (Pettitte, 21-8) at Atlanta (Smoltz, 24-8), 5:15 p.m.

SATURDAY--at New York, 5 p.m.

*SUNDAY--at New York, 4:30 p.m.

All games on Channel 11; *--If necessary