Yankees Silently Do Their Job

ATLANTA — In a creaky downtown neighborhood in a chilly darkness late Saturday, a group of locals were surrounded by some hungry New Yorkers.

Who invited them to inspect their flowered lapels, then squirted them with water.

Who asked them to have a seat, then lined it with a Whoopee Cushion.

Who offered a hand in friendship, then buzzed them.

The New York Yankees scored four runs in the eighth inning to surprise and defeat the Atlanta Braves, 4-1, in the World Series opener Saturday.

But you wouldn’t call this a mugging anymore than you would say an opera is shouting.

The Yankees don’t mug you, they tease you, they nudge you, they encircle you.

Then before you know it, one of them is kneeling behind you, and another one is gently pushing you backward.

Late Saturday night, the Atlanta Braves had the vacant glare of a man flat on the concrete, staring at the stars.

“Look at that lineup, they have a heck of a team,” said Bret Boone, shaking his head. “We are not in a very good mood.”

The Yankees do that to people. They have done that for nine consecutive World Series victories over three postseasons, for eight wins in nine games this postseason.

They do it without flares, without force, without fire.

Saturday, they did it against a Braves’ team that, for seven innings, had all of that.

“Coming in here, we really felt good about ourselves,” Andruw Jones said. “Then with Greg Maddux, you get him a run or two, that can be enough.”

Against the Yankees in October, enough is never enough.

Emotion is as lasting as a bag of sunflower seeds.

And today, the Braves need to be seriously worried that if they fall behind two games to none, this series will never find its way back here to the land of the casual fan and choreographed cheers.

“We think we’re a good team,” said Boone quietly.

He paused, then raised his voice.

“I mean, we still think we’re a good team,” he said.

But the Yankees know it.

That is the difference.

“We have done this so many times before, we never panic,” said third base coach Willie Randolph. “We scratch and claw and hang around and wait for a break, for an opening.

“Because we know, you give us just one opening, we will take advantage of it.”

With all the Yankee stars Saturday--Orlando Hernandez’s numbing pitching, Derek Jeter and Paul O’Neill’s hearty hitting--why are we talking to Randolph?

Because he may have made the biggest play of all.

And, typical of the Yankees, he made it long before the first pitch.

With the bases loaded and the game tied and O’Neill batting in the eighth inning, John Rocker threw a ball in the dirt and to the backstop.

On virtually any other team, the runner from third base would have tried to score. But Chad Curtis ran several feet down the line, then stopped.

And, good thing for the Yankees, because the ball bounced off a beam and directly back to catcher Eddie Perez.

“I would have been easily out,” said Curtis.

And if he is out, then the Braves get momentum, and maybe O’Neill doesn’t hit that next pitch, and maybe Rocker and the Braves don’t fall apart.

And maybe you want to know why he didn’t run?

Because before the game, Randolph walked around the field and discovered the beam and realized that a ball to the backstop might not stay there.

He told this to his team. And his team listened.

“What happens out there with us is not a result of something we think about on the spot--there is no time to think,” Curtis said. “What happens is a result of all the work we put in beforehand.”

Start with Hernandez, the Cuban refugee who was signed by the Yankees last year because they were one of the few teams that didn’t listen to rumors--later proven true--that his age is actually 34, not 31.

They care about World Series rings, not birth certificates. And they knew that after escaping the oppressive government of your country, what’s a World Series jam or two?

Hernandez, with a 1.29 ERA in two World Series starts and a 1.20 ERA in this postseason, was acquired for moments like Saturday’s seven one-hit innings.

And the Braves, inexplicably not remembering that National League umpire Randy Marsh has one of the smallest strike zones in the game, swung wildly and often.

One team does its homework, the other team doesn’t.

Then the game reached the eighth, and the Yankees were still close.

Bobby Cox, the Braves’ manager, has a chance to increase his lead in the seventh, but Chipper Jones ends the inning by getting thrown out trying to steal with Andruw Jones batting.

Joe Torre shows no such panic, holding back Darryl Strawberry from a couple of possible pinch-hit situations until Strawberry can step up in the eighth with a runner on first and none out.

“That was a brilliant move by Joe,” David Cone said. “It was the one spot where he could have used Strawberry and he didn’t waste him.”

Greg Maddux, obviously worried about a home run, walks Strawberry.

Then Chuck Knoblauch lays down a perfect bunt, and the Braves panic again.

“I tried to pick it up too quick,” said Brian Hunter, who dropped the ball for an error that loaded the bases.

Hunter committed only four errors during the regular season, but two on Saturday.

“That may keep me up tonight,” he said.

What happened next--from Jeter’s two-strike single to O’Neill’s single to the walk to usually impatient Jim Leyritz--should keep a lot of Braves awake.

“Because we don’t have any huge superstars on this team, it’s like, we’re always looking around at each other,” Curtis said. “You’re thinking, if you do one little thing, then maybe the guy behind you will do one little thing, then maybe then next guy. . . .”

The Yankees mugged the Braves, all right.

Knocked them over with a foam tomahawk.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.