Braves Have a Lot of Wannabe Heroes

Day turned to night, gray turned to rain, and the sweet thought of champagne suddenly turned sour for the Atlanta Braves.

The longest game in postseason history, a war of attrition, lasted almost six hours Sunday, but it may last a lifetime for a rookie pitcher named Kevin McGlinchy.

Unable to hold a 3-2 lead in the 15th inning of a historic game, he will be forced to carry the burden of a 4-3 loss to the New York Mets, who are back from the grave again, heading to Atlanta for a Game 6 Tuesday night and trailing in the National League’s best-of-seven championship series only 3-2.

For the Braves, attempting to underscore their reputation as the Team of the Decade, it should never have come down to McGlinchy, to a sixth pitcher.

They could have buried the resilient Mets in Game 4 on Saturday and should have buried them Sunday.

The telling line wasn’t McGlinchy’s. The telling line was delivered by batting coach Don Baylor after the Braves struck out 19 times and left the same number of runners on base.

“Terrible,” Baylor said. “That’s the worst approach I’ve seen from our hitters all year. We had another clinching game and lost our focus.

“At one point, Orel Hershiser [the second of nine Met pitchers] threw 18 pitches, 17 of them were balls, and I think we swung at all of them.

“I mean, you come down to the last part of the game and wonder why you get beat? Just drive in a run instead of swinging for the fences. Suddenly everybody is pressing and wants to be a hero.”

The Braves left 11 runners on base in a five-inning stretch starting in the fourth inning.

In 33 innings of three games at Shea Stadium, they scored only six runs and won only on the basis of an unearned run Friday night, 1-0.

Chipper Jones, who again heard a crowd of 55,723 chant his given name of Larry in derisive fashion, awakened Sunday with three hits, but the Braves are batting .211 for the series with Brian Jordan, Ryan Klesko, Gerald Williams and Andruw Jones all below the Mendoza line of .200, and Bret Boone only slightly above at .222.

After getting only three hits in Saturday’s attempt to clinch, the Braves wasted another strong start by Greg Maddux Sunday while failing to take advantage of 13 hits and 10 walks.

Baylor shook his head and said he constantly talks to his young hitters about their approach but now he has a virtual lineup of guys trying to uncork the champagne by themselves, pressing and trying to do too much.

“Once you figure it out, these games should be fun,” he said.

This one was far from a laugher, however, and all the Braves could do was put their best face on it.

“It was gut-wrenching,” third base coach Ned Yost said, “but everyone knows we’re still up, 3-2, and going home with a rested Kevin Millwood for Game 6.”

Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox used all of his non-pitchers, and only Millwood and fellow starters Tom Glavine and John Smoltz were left when McGlinchy went out for his second inning of work in the 15th with the Braves leading, 3-2.

Cox had used Smoltz in relief in Game 2 and Millwood in relief in the division series, but he cited the persistent rain and said, “I wasn’t going to bring one of those guys in with the mound the way it was. It was too treacherous. It might have been different if we were in sunny L.A., but I felt we were better off staying with a guy who had already been on it.”

The 23-year-old McGlinchy had appeared in 23 games with the Braves this year, recording a 7-3 record with a 2.82 earned-run average, but in the 15th inning, making his first postseason appearance, with the remnants of the Shea crowd up and screaming, with the rain falling and his spikes clogged by mud, with the Braves needing only three outs, he couldn’t locate the plate.

“I knew I was the last guy standing,” he said. “I knew it was up to me. It was as pressure-filled as it gets, and as loud as it gets, but I don’t feel that was the issue. I was going after guys, but I just couldn’t command my fastball. It was cutting a lot, running out of the strike zone. I was getting behind, and you can’t do that at this level.”

A leadoff single by Shawon Dunston after he had fouled off six consecutive pitches tightened the noose. Dunston stole second, and McGlinchy walked Matt Franco. Edgardo Alfonzo sacrificed, and Cox ordered an intentional walk to John Olerud. McGlinchy followed with an unintentional walk to Todd Pratt, forcing in the tying run, after which he finally located the plate with a fastball and Robin Ventura hit it over the right-field fence for a grand slam that was reduced to a run-scoring single when the jubilant Mets mobbed Ventura before he reached second base.

“It’s discouraging to take it on the chin like that,” McGlinchy said. “You hate to have to walk off having given up the game, but I’m going to keep my head up. I’ll handle that situation better the next time.”

McGlinchy didn’t give it up as much as the Atlanta hitters did. The search for runs was such that Atlanta third base coach Yost gambled that the Mets would misplay a wet ball on Chipper Jones’ double into the right-field corner and attempted to score Keith Lockhart from first. The Mets handled it cleanly and flawlessly, cutting down Lockhart at the plate in the 13th.

The search for runs was such that Cox had called for a two-strike suicide squeeze with one out, the bases loaded and Maddux at the plate in the sixth only to have Maddux fan on the bunt attempt and Klesko put out in the rundown.

“Maddux is the best bunter in all of baseball,” Cox said. “We’ve worked that a lot. I don’t know how he missed that pitch. It was right down the middle. If he gets the bunt down, we’re back in Atlanta by now.”

It was several hours after the blown squeeze that the Braves headed home, but they didn’t travel alone. The champagne was still in cargo and they would soon be joined in Georgia by the Mets.

“We’re still in great shape,” insisted Cox. “It’s just that the last two nights we should have won. We had so many chances.”

Another telling line.