Cox Manages to Win Another One

Guys sit around TV sets, watching baseball, screaming at the manager. Women, likewise.

Dusty Baker, do this. Bill Russell, do that. Sparky, get that bum outta there. Hey, Lasorda! Walk him, walk him.

Let me tell you why, here in Atlanta, nobody yells much at Bobby Cox.

Wednesday’s 13-3 pounding of the Houston Astros turned out to be Cox’s 40th victory in postseason play, the most of any manager who ever lived.

In the fourth inning, the Braves were breezing along, 3-0, thanks to Jeff Blauser’s three-run homer.

Without warning, Tom Glavine, the Atlanta pitcher, couldn’t get the ball over the plate. He walked Richard Hidalgo and Bill Spiers, back to back.

A ground ball by Ricky Gutierrez bumped the runners to second and third, with two out.

On deck stood Brad Ausmus, the Astro catcher.

Ausmus was the No. 8 man in the lineup. He had, however, enjoyed a fine season, batting .266. And while his manager hadn’t used him against Greg Maddux in Game 1 of this series, Ausmus was the regular Houston catcher, having appeared in 130 games.

I have to believe many a manager would have instructed Glavine to intentionally walk Ausmus at this point, to get to the pitcher.

Not Cox.

Remember, first base is open, there are two away, and this is a National League playoff game on national TV.

Managers don’t like to pull bonehead plays on national TV.

At this point, my job is to tell you that Glavine blew away Ausmus on three pitches, retiring the side, to show you what a genius Cox is.

That is not what happened.

Ausmus doubled down the left-field line, scoring two runs.

The score was now 3-2. And the next batter, Mike Hampton, the Houston pitcher, singled to right field, tying the score.

Did the Brave fans boo?

Did they spit up their Coca-Cola?

Did Ted Turner turn to Jane Fonda and say, “I’d give a billion dollars for a new manager?”

Nope.

Because after six postseason appearances in a row, Atlanta’s fans have come to trust Cox’s intuition.

OK, so the Ausmus thing backfired.

Why did he do it?

Because it just so happened, Ausmus came to the plate carrying an .048 average lifetime against Glavine, one for 21.

“He and I joke about it,” Glavine would say later.

“Before today’s game, he even said to me, ‘You going to give me a hit today?’

“And I said, ‘Yeah, in the eighth inning, with a big lead, then I’ll give you one.’ ”

In the opposite dugout, Larry Dierker, the Astro manager, claimed that he understood Cox’s strategy.

Dierker said of his own player, “The guy’s an eighth-place hitter for a reason. Bobby knows that.”

By the end of this game, Dierker was exposed for the rookie manager he is.

He left his pitcher, Hampton, twisting in the wind.

The Braves were batting in the bottom of the fifth, the score still 3-3. Hampton retired the first two men, then went haywire. He walked Chipper Jones (for the third time). He walked Fred McGriff on four pitches. He walked Javy Lopez on four more.

Bases loaded, Andruw Jones up . . . and Dierker still in the dugout, watching Hampton go down the tubes.

Jones took a first-pitch strike. Hampton then threw four consecutive poor pitches to Jones, all of them outside, forcing in the go-ahead run. It was Hampton’s eighth walk, in 4 2/3 innings.

“I kept thinking he could make one good pitch, to get out of it,” Dierker said. “Hampton’s a ground-ball pitcher.”

Yes, a ground-ball pitcher who had given up five ground balls, in the 21 batters he faced.

Let me tell you now what Bobby Cox did.

The batter behind Jones was slugger Ryan Klesko, who had homered in Game 1. It is only the fifth inning, and the bases are still juiced.

Cox pinch-hit for him.

He sent up Greg Colbrunn, who batted 54 times this season.

Dierker brought in Mike Magnante to pitch.

Colbrunn singled to right field, scoring two more runs.

“I knew Colbrunn had had some success off Magnante in the past,” Cox explained.

Yes. He was two for three.

Atlanta’s manager pulled his power-hitting left fielder, with the bases full, in the fifth inning of a 4-3 game, because Colbrunn had two hits off the relief pitcher, lifetime.

Let me tell you something:

Bobby Cox can manage my team, any time.