Special K Day for Marlins

When Livan Hernandez slipped the final pitch past Fred McGriff for his 15th strikeout, the Florida Marlins went wild.

Big celebration in the middle of the diamond, with players rushing from the bench and bullpen to join in. Fireworks overhead, mascot Billy the Marlin on the mound waving a banner and a crowd of 51,982 going crazy.

Just like they’d won the World Series.

Suffice to say that sometime before the Marlins head off to Atlanta, Manager Jim Leyland will remind his team, from experience: They’re not even in the World Series yet.

Hernandez moved the Marlins within one victory of making it, however, pitching one of the great games in postseason history as the Marlins beat the Braves, 2-1, Sunday to take a 3-2 lead in the best-of-five National League championship series.

The 22-year-old rookie set an NLCS record for strikeouts, giving up only three hits in outdueling Greg Maddux. Hernandez won his second game of the series, not bad for someone not originally in Leyland’s playoff rotation.

“I’d like to say I expected this,” Leyland said. “But I don’t think there’s a person in this room, in the stands or in the world that expected this.”

Starting only because of Alex Fernandez’s torn rotator cuff and Kevin Brown’s viral infection, Hernandez was helped by plate umpire Eric Gregg’s wide strike zone, as was Maddux.

Jeff Conine, the lone player left from Florida’s first game in 1993, hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning that moved the Marlins within one win of becoming the fastest team to reach the World Series.

The loss left the two-time NL champion Braves in familiar territory. Atlanta rallied to win the final three games of the 1996 NLCS, including the last two at home, to overtake St. Louis in seven games.

“This team never gives up,” Atlanta’s Ryan Klesko said. “Even if we were down, 3-0, we wouldn’t give up. They still have to beat us one more time.”

In fact, a few days ago Klesko reiterated that many Braves thought the Cardinals celebrated too much last October after taking a 3-1 lead. Atlanta came back to win the final three games by a combined score of 32-1.

Leyland is well aware of Atlanta’s playoff comebacks. The Braves overcame a 3-2 deficit to beat Leyland’s Pittsburgh team in the 1991 NLCS, and beat Leyland’s Pirates in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.

Game 6 will be Tuesday night at Turner Field as Tom Glavine opposes Brown.

In his first start since Sept. 27, Hernandez retired 17 of the last 18 batters. He won for the second time in three days, having pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings in Game 3.

Hernandez, wearing No. 32 on his hat in tribute to Fernandez, pitched out of a first-inning jam and walked two. The 15 strikeouts broke the NLCS record shared by Mike Scott and John Candelaria.

“During the game, you can’t think about that,” Hernandez said through an interpreter. “After the game, people can tell you what it is you did.”

Mike Mussina fanned 15--two short of Bob Gibson’s postseason record--for Baltimore in the ALCS on Saturday at Cleveland.

The 25 strikeouts by both teams was a record for a league championship series game. Of the 25, eight were called by Gregg.

“My strike zone has been consistent on both sides for 20 years,” Gregg said.

Hernandez finished in style. He struck out Keith Lockhart to start the ninth, speared Chipper Jones’ liner for the second out and got McGriff looking.

“I was very excited,” Hernandez said. “It was a big win for the Marlins.”

Maddux, the victim of five unearned runs in the opener, lost again because of a ball that was not caught, albeit it involved a difficult play.

Bobby Bonilla opened the seventh with a drive to deep right that snow-coned in Michael Tucker’s glove as he crashed into the wall. The ball popped loose, as did one of Tucker’s contact lenses, and Bonilla wound up with a double.

There was an eight-minute delay while Tucker and others looked for the elusive lens. Tucker eventually left the game and, when it resumed, Conine singled up the middle on Maddux’s first pitch, stopping an 0-for-13 slide in the series.

“I’ve been here since Day 1,” Conine said. “This was really something today.”

Maddux struck out nine in seven innings, allowing four hits. Still, his record fell to 8-7 in 17 career postseason starts.

Hernandez got into immediate trouble when Kenny Lofton tripled on the second pitch of the game and Lockhart walked.

But Hernandez showed October skill beyond his years, striking out Jones, McGriff and Klesko in succession to escape. He did it by relying on backdoor sliders and offspeed stuff, rather than overthrowing his fastball, a common mistake by young pitchers.

In the bottom half, Maddux hit leadoff man Devon White in the right leg with an 0-2 pitch, though Maddux and Braves manager Bobby Cox argued to Gregg that White moved into the ball. White stole second and scored on Bonilla’s single.

Tucker tied it at 1 when he homered to dead center off Hernandez to start the second.