He May Not Want to Close This Deal

Dennis Eckersley never wanted to be a relief pitcher. The Oakland Athletics dragged him from the starting rotation, kicking and screaming, and a dozen years later he had 387 saves and a ticket to the Hall of Fame.

John Smoltz isn’t quite sure he wants to be a closer. He’s the Braves’ closer of the moment--he has saved each of the first two games of this division series--but he can declare free agency this fall and says he has not decided whether he wants to return to Atlanta, or to return to starting.

Despite his ambivalence, Smoltz has been a terrific closer. In a role he filled partly to ease his workload after reconstructive elbow surgery and partly because the Braves needed someone after trading John Rocker, Smoltz converted 10 of 11 saves during the regular season, walking five and striking out 37 in 34 innings.

As a starter, his fastball typically hit 90-94 mph. In the last two games, he hit 98 and 99 mph. Before Wednesday’s game, Houston first baseman Jeff Bagwell jokingly said to Atlanta pitching coach Leo Mazzone, “What is that? I need surgery like that.”

Said Smoltz, “As a starter, it’s hard to sustain that for nine innings. You pace yourself. This is an adrenaline role. There’s no time to set anybody up.”

Atlanta General Manager John Schuerholz met with Smoltz last month and told him the Braves want him back, as a closer. Eckersley won 151 games as a starter, in 12 seasons, before becoming a closer at 32. Before his injury, Smoltz won 157 games as a starter, in 12 seasons. He is 34.

“We believe, depending on how long he chooses to pitch, that he can amass the same kind of save numbers Eckersley was able to do,” Schuerholz said.

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The Astros long ago anointed Bagwell and Craig Biggio their franchise players. Bagwell hit .128 and Biggio .119 as the Astros lost in the division series in 1997, ’98 and ’99. The Astros are one loss away from another first-round exit.

Biggio, a seven-time all-star, was as proud as he was realistic.

“The tank is low, but we’re battling,” he said. “The reality is, if we go our whole careers and this is as far as we get, it was meant to be.”

Bagwell singled twice Wednesday and is three for five in the series. Biggio is one for eight.

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The Houston fans already have selected shortstop Julio Lugo as the goat of the series. Lugo’s error Tuesday, on a made-to-order double-play ball that would have ended the eighth inning, preceded Chipper Jones’ game-winning home run. Wednesday, Lugo made an error in the first inning and another in the second--that’s three errors in four innings--and the second allowed the Braves to score an unearned run, the only run of the game.

In the fourth inning, when he caught a routine pop fly, the crowd of 35,704 cheered mockingly. In the bottom of the inning, when he struck out, they booed. He is 0 for 7 in the series.

“It’s hard,” Lugo said. “I don’t know if some people understand we’re giving 100%. We don’t want to lose. We don’t want to make errors.”

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Joy Rogers, the sister of Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox, suffered a brain hemorrhage Wednesday and was hospitalized in Birmingham, Ala.

The Braves released no other information on her condition, but said Cox was planning to head to Birmingham as soon as the team flight landed in Atlanta on Wednesday night.