Seeing Stars of No Help to Millwood

A stirring pregame ceremony featuring Dodger broadcasting great Vin Scully’s introduction of the all-century team, which included the likes of Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ted Williams and Pete Rose on stage, produced a few million goose bumps among a Turner Field crowd of 51,226 Sunday night.

Too bad they had to start the game and ruin everything for Atlanta fans. Brave starter Kevin Millwood, looking as ragged as one might expect a youngster who has thrown 250 innings this year--76 more than he had thrown in any professional season--had absolutely nothing.

The New York Yankees turned Millwood into tomahawk-chopped liver in the first inning, scoring three runs on five hits, and the Braves never recovered. The Yankees went on to an easy 7-2 victory in Game 2 of the World Series, taking a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.

“You don’t like that feeling, being down by three runs so early,” said Millwood, who gave up a season-high five runs on eight hits in two innings. “It’s my fault. That’s the bottom line. You’re going to lose every game you pitch when you throw like that.”

THE SITUATION

No score, top of the first . . . the Braves are still in it. Not for long. Millwood felt fine during warmups and said he was not bothered by the delay caused by the lengthy ceremony, but his fastball has little life, and too many of his pitches are cutting the plate in half.

“I’d make one good pitch to a hitter, and the others would be right down the middle or way out of the strike zone,” Millwood said. “I thought I had pretty good stuff. I just didn’t make pitches.”

WHAT HAPPENED

Chuck Knoblauch led off the game with a single, Derek Jeter singled, and Game 1 hero Paul O’Neill, after fouling off three 0-and-2 pitches, smacked an RBI single to right-center for a 1-0 lead.

Bernie Williams, swinging at a 2-and-0 pitch, grounded into a 6-3 double play, raising Millwood’s hopes of escaping the inning with just one run.

But Tino Martinez lined an RBI single to center, Ricky Ledee walked, and Scott Brosius, fighting off an 0-and-2 count, hit an RBI single to center for a 3-0 lead. In all, three hits came on two-strike pitches.

THE BOTTOM LINE

The way the Braves have been hitting and Yankee starter David Cone has been pitching, three runs seemed a big enough cushion for New York, and it was. A cluster of Yankee fans in the left-field corner even began taunting blase Braves fans with chants of: “Beat the traffic! Beat the traffic!”

Williams and Martinez singled off Millwood to open the third, Ledee hit an RBI double, and the Yankees made it 5-0 when Cone’s easy looper clanked off Atlanta shortstop Ozzie Guillen’s glove for an error.

Millwood held opposing hitters to a .202 average this year. Sunday night, the Yankees had eight hits in 13 at-bats (.615) against the right-hander.

THE LAST WORD

If the Braves need inspiration, they need only look at themselves. Atlanta won the first two games of the 1996 World Series in convincing fashion in New York, and the Yankees were written off by most.

New York traveled to Atlanta, won three games and ended the series with a Game 6 victory in Yankee Stadium.

“We’ve got to turn this thing around and get it back to Atlanta,” Millwood said. “We’re not going to give up.”