Not All Is Settled Just Yet

By TIM BROWN

Oct. 4, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Unable to decide a National League wild-card winner after six months of baseball, the Cincinnati Reds and New York Mets will meet halfway.

The Reds, late-night winners in Milwaukee, and the Mets, winners in New York, will play tonight in Cincinnati. The winner of the one-game playoff at Cinergy Field, just off Pete Rose Way, advances to the National League Division Series.

There was rain mixed with scattered ire Sunday in Milwaukee, where the Reds, losers of three in a row, sat among plastic-covered lockers and glumly watched on television as the Houston Astros clinched the NL Central and the New York Mets claimed a piece of a wild card the Reds thought was all theirs.

So sure of their postseason inclusion only two days before, the Reds lost the first two games of a series against the Brewers, then had their regular-season finale delayed nearly six hours by rain. They finally put away the Brewers, 7-1, on the strength of a five-run third inning, highlighted by Greg Vaughn’s three-run home run.

The unlikely resurgence of the Mets, the ability of the Astros to beat a minor-league pitcher and the recent missteps of the Reds cast the National League playoffs into disarray Sunday, when five teams and two series awaited a conclusion to the regular season.

The one-game playoff--the Mets’ Al Leiter will oppose Reds right-hander Steve Parris--will start at 4 p.m.

The Reds won the regular-season series against the Mets, 5-4.

If the Reds are the wild-card entry, they will open at Atlanta. If the Mets win, they will open at Arizona.

It didn’t always appear so hopeful for the Reds.

The mood grew darker than the Wisconsin sky when the Dodgers handed their starting assignment to pitcher Robinson Checo, rested slugger Gary Sheffield and sent an undermanned team against the Astros.

Jim Bowden, the Reds’ general manager, accused Dodger Manager Davey Johnson of laying down for the Astros.

“By starting Robinson Checo,” Bowden said, “he just forfeited the game to the Astros.” The Astros won, 9-4, in part because Checo walked four consecutive batters in the first inning.

“You’d think that a team would play its best players against a contender,” Red Manager Jack McKeon said. “In the past I’ve gotten letters from the league president telling me to do so.”

McKeon is an affable enough sort who drew confidence from the fact that his priest in a Saturday night mass in downtown Wisconsin wore a red hat.

“We must be in the right place,” McKeon thought to himself.

The priest was a bishop.

Johnson’s decision--apparently the Reds would have liked him to start Kevin Brown on short rest, to the benefit of no one but the Reds--will not be forgiven by McKeon.

“What goes around comes around,” McKeon said. The Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 2-1, to get at least one more game out of a season that looked over when they lost seven consecutive games last week. They swept the Pirates in three games at Shea Stadium over the weekend, which began with the Reds holding a two-game advantage in the wild card.

In what was billed as Queens’ biggest game in 11 years, or since the Mets lost to the Dodgers in L.A. in Game 7 of the 1988 National League championship series, the Mets scored with one out and the bases loaded in the ninth.

With Mike Piazza batting, Melvin Mora scored from third base on reliever Brad Clontz’s wild pitch to break a 1-1 tie.

“It’s kind of indicative of the season we’ve had,” Piazza said. “Everyone had us buried six feet under.”

Closer John Franco, whose 16 big-league seasons hadn’t included a playoff series, led a group of relievers who dashed in from the bullpen to mob Mora.

“I had tears in my eyes in the bullpen,” Franco said.

A chartered jet awaited the Mets at nearby LaGuardia Airport. When they won, they flew to Cincinnati, where they watched the Reds’ match them with their 97th victory.

Had the Reds lost, the Mets would have flown to Arizona this morning.

The Astros, division winners for the third consecutive season, won’t know their first-round opponent until the wild card is decided, but they celebrated their own arrival.

A few took a lap around the Astrodome on a Harley-Davidson, second baseman Craig Biggio with a tennis ball can-sized cigar in his mouth.

Mike Hampton gave up three hits in seven innings and won for the 22nd time, a club record.

“We’ve gone through a lot of stuff, all the injuries, the manager [Larry Dierker] going down, but these guys battled and battled,” said Ken Caminiti, whose San Diego Padres advanced last season to the World Series. “I can’t say enough about them.”

By contrast, the American League has become so routine that the same four teams will meet in the same two cities as they did last year.

The New York Yankees play host to the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night at Yankee Stadium and the Cleveland Indians host the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday at Jacobs Field.

Red Sox right-hander Pedro Martinez, likely the unanimous Cy Young Award winner in the AL, will oppose Bartolo Colon in the opener.

The Yankees, looking to win a third World Series title in four years, are vulnerable, a season after they were 125-50.

“I don’t think teams are afraid of us at all,” David Cone said.

While Roger Clemens and Cone wait, six Cy Young Awards among them, Orlando Hernandez and Andy Pettitte will put the tone in the Yankees’ bid to repeat.

Incomprehensible as it seemed when the Yankees carved up their invincible club to get Clemens, the slick, volatile Hernandez is their most consistent starter. Pettitte, nearly given away for prospects at the trading deadline, was better in the past two months, but still not the emerging ace he was two years ago.

They’ll start Games 1 and 2 in New York against Aaron Sele and Rick Helling, respectively.

Clemens, it seems, has one more chance to prove that playing under the expectations of New York--to achieve, to repeat, to be Clemens--wasn’t too much for his psyche.

He dictated a trade because he wished to pitch in October. He’ll get the ball and a chance to live down a short history of unremarkable postseasons.

The Rangers finished their season with three consecutive losses to the Angels when they arrived hoping to claim home-field advantage. Instead, the Yankees have it until the World Series, if they reach it.

Though Yankee Manager Joe Torre dismissed the statistical advantages of Yankee Stadium, he did say, “I still like all the ghosts around us.”

The Rangers were not entirely without motivation, then, and still were stripped of momentum. They could have used some. This is their third trip to the postseason in four years. In the previous two, they lost to the Yankees in the first round. Last year, they scored one run in three games.

“We have to look at the opportunity, not the obstacle,” Ranger Manager Johnny Oates said. “The obstacle can make you doubt. We need to look past it and see the opportunity.”

Asked if his club might have been uptight in the last Division Series, Oates said it made no difference. “It doesn’t matter who the Yankees played last year,” Oates said. “They could have played the ’27 Yankees and they would have won. It didn’t matter how tight or loose you were, they were going to win. Kevin Brown couldn’t even stop them.

“We think our chances are just as good as anyone else’s this year. Last year we would have needed a break to win. New York was almost invincible.”

The experience of playing the Yankees, in New York, in front of fans who might give a Ryder Cup gallery a run for its roguish money, Oates said, was perhaps necessary.

“They’re the champions until somebody beats them,” Ranger outfielder Rusty Greer said. Asked if he considered them more vulnerable, Greer said, “That, I don’t know. I think only time will tell and only nine innings will tell.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

First Round Playoff Schedule

All times Pacific; All series best of five games

AMERICAN LEAGUE DIVISION SERIES

NEW YORK VS. TEXAS

* Tuesday: Texas (Sele 18-9) at New York (Hernandez 17-9), 5:07 p.m. (Ch. 4)

* Thursday: Texas (Helling 13-11) at New York (Pettitte 14-11), 5:07 p.m. (Ch. 11)

* Saturday: New York (Clemens 14-10) at Texas (Loaiza 9-5), TBA

* Sunday: New York at Texas, TBA, if necessary

* Monday, Oct. 11: Texas at New York, TBA, if necessary

CLEVELAND VS. BOSTON

* Wednesday: Boston (P.Martinez 23-4) at Cleveland (Colon 18-5), 5:07 p.m. (Ch. 11) or 10:09 a.m. (ESPN)