Braves Have Astros Behind the Eighth Ball

Billy Wagner stood in front of his locker and stood up for himself, graciously enduring waves of reporters demanding a first-person account of the game-winning home run. Chipper Jones hit it, off Wagner, providing the Atlanta Braves with a 7-4 victory over the Houston Astros.

“We should have won that game,” Wagner said. “To lose that game on one pitch like that, it’s tough.”

But the Braves won the first game of the best-of-five division series at Enron Field because of what happened in one inning, not only because of what happened on one pitch. If the Astros do not recover to win the series, Houston fans will be cursing the eighth inning of Tuesday’s game for years.

With the Astros leading, 3-2, and six outs away from victory, Houston Manager Larry Dierker picked Mike Jackson instead of Octavio Dotel to work the eighth inning, a move Dierker was terse in defending.

“If I said I put in Dotel, you’d say, ‘Why not Mike Jackson?’ Check the record,” Dierker said.

Yes, Jackson has more playoff experience, but Dotel has a better earned-run average this season--overall, in the second half, in the final month, at home, in day games and against the Braves.

Pinch-hitter Keith Lockhart doubled to start the inning, and pinch-hitter Ken Caminiti struck out. Marcus Giles then hit a ground ball that glanced off the glove of second baseman Craig Biggio and into center field.

“I did everything I could to get to that ball and knock it down,” Biggio said.

If he does, Lockhart holds at third base. If he does not touch the ball at all, Lockhart probably holds at third base, wary of the arm of center fielder Richard Hidalgo. Instead, Biggio got close enough to slow the ball but not close enough to stop it, enabling Lockhart to score the tying run.

“If it’s half a foot one way or the other, it changes the complexion of the game,” Houston catcher Brad Ausmus said.

Julio Franco then hit a sharp ground ball right at shortstop Julio Lugo, a made-to-order double-play ball. If Lockhart had held at third, the Astros could have escaped the inning without giving up a run. Still, a double play would have preserved a 3-3 tie and stranded Atlanta’s best hitter on deck.

Lugo bobbled, and then dropped, the ball.

“I just mishandled it. It took a funny hop on me,” said Lugo, who committed more errors than all but three other major league shortstops this season.

“That was a big error at a bad time,” Atlanta’s Brian Jordan said. “When things like that happen, it usually hurts you. Chipper made it hurt.”

With the score tied, Dierker summoned his closer in the eighth inning, for the first time this season. This move made sense: Against Wagner, Jones was 0 for 8 with six strikeouts.

“It’s hard to say you’re due against one of the best closers in the game,” Jones said. “I certainly wasn’t bubbling over with confidence when I walked into the batter’s box.”

First pitch, gone. A 96-mph fastball--”You’d be stupid to look for anything else,” Jones said--over the heart of the plate, a line drive into the bleachers atop the left-field scoreboard.

“I was just hoping a fan wouldn’t reach over and they would call it a ground-rule double,” Jordan said.

As Jones circled the bases, the fans started to trickle out of Enron Field. If not now, when? If second-year starter Wade Miller could neutralize the great Greg Maddux--Miller gave up two earned runs in seven innings, Maddux two in six--how could the Astros blow this one? If Houston’s vaunted bullpen inherited a 3-2 lead, how could that lead evaporate after only one out?

The Astros carry the albatross of playoff failure. They never have won a postseason series, including division series losses in 1997, ’98 and ’99.

“It’s a veteran group in here,” Ausmus said. “It’s not a panicky group in here.”

“I always bet on us,” said Lugo, presumably speaking metaphorically. “We have the best team in the National League. It won’t be a surprise to anybody in here if we come back and win.”

No series is over after one game--”It’s like we scored in the bottom of the first inning. Big deal,” Maddux said--but the Astros ought to be a bit concerned. The Braves, guaranteed no worse than a split when the series moves to Atlanta on Friday, will pitch two-time Cy Young Award winner Tom Glavine today, against journeyman Dave Mlicki.

And the Astros, losers to the Braves in the 1997 and ’99 playoffs, now are 1-7 against Atlanta in division series play.

“I’m sure it’s in the back of their minds,” Jordan said. “You don’t forget about it.

“To have a lead and blow it, I hope it will affect them, but I doubt it.”