This New Brave World Looks Same to Astros

By BILL SHAIKIN

Oct. 13, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

ATLANTA —

It’s a defining moment in the history of the Atlanta Braves, so much so that TBS adapted it for a slogan in an advertising campaign: “Where were you when Sid slid?”

On the final pitch of the final game of the 1992 National League championship series, Francisco Cabrera singled, and Sid Bream slid home with the winning run. In their run of 10 consecutive division championships and five World Series appearances, the Braves have not lived on Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz alone.

The Braves advanced to the championship series yet again Friday, with a 6-2 victory that wrapped a three-game sweep of the Houston Astros. Maddux and Glavine did not pitch Friday; Smoltz pitched one inning. In the spirit of Cabrera, Bream, Mark Lemke and Luis Polonia, the Braves evicted Houston from the playoffs thanks to their latest batch of unsung and unlikely postseason heroes.

John Burkett, Paul Bako, Rey Sanchez and Julio Franco, take a bow. You too, Steve Reed and Steve Karsay.

By the time Burkett gave up a run, in the seventh inning, Bako already had driven in three.

All but Burkett and Bako joined the club during the season, a strangely difficult one for the Braves. The perennial contenders looked anything but June 1, when they were a .500 team eight games out of first place.

But, with Smoltz returning from the disabled list with a 98-mph fastball, the Braves suddenly had one of baseball’s best closers. General Manager John Schuerholz acquired Sanchez, Franco, Reed and Karsay, and the team that looked past its prime in June now looks like the team to beat in the NL.

No playoff team won fewer games during the regular season than the Braves. But now, with the new players finally--and finely--blended with the old, the Braves have won 11 of 15 games.

“I think we’ve saved our best baseball for the last part of the year,” said Chipper Jones, who hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning. “We didn’t really make the blockbuster move, but we tweaked here and there. That’s a credit to John Schuerholz and the front office. They didn’t seem like big moves at the time. But when you look at how we’ve played over the last three weeks, those guys have been right in the middle of it.”

Said Schuerholz: “This is awfully rewarding. I can’t tell you how many times we were counted out.”

Burkett, released by Tampa Bay last year, won 12 games this year, with a better earned-run average (3.04) than former Cy Young winners Maddux and Glavine. He deflated the Astros by pitching six shutout innings.

The Braves acquired Reed and Karsay for the loud and decreasingly effective John Rocker, and each silenced one of Houston’s best hitters. After pinch-hitter Daryle Ward hit a two-run home run in the seventh inning, Reed relieved Burkett and retired Craig Biggio. Karsay pitched a perfect eighth, striking out Jeff Bagwell on a 97-mph fastball.

Bako, the backup catcher, drove in three runs, two on a home run that gave the Braves a 2-0 lead in the second inning and another on a squeeze bunt.

“I don’t know if I’m a hero,” he said. “I was just glad to drive in a couple of runs.”

Sanchez, acquired to replace the injured Rafael Furcal at shortstop, doubled and singled. For Sanchez, stuck on a miserable Kansas City team most of the year and nearly traded to the Dodgers in July, the season could not have ended more sweetly.

“I had no idea where I was going to end up,” Sanchez said. “I’m pretty excited it was here.”

Franco, rescued from the Mexican League in the Braves’ desperate search for a first baseman, hit a home run and singled too. Franco, listed at 40 and widely believed to be 43, is so old his teammates during his rookie season--on the 1982 Philadelphia Phillies--included Pete Rose, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw. Before the Braves sent out their lifeline, Franco had not started a major league game since 1997.

“A lot of superstars right now are home,” Franco said. “To go from Mexico to here is overwhelming.”

The Astros were overwhelmed by numbness. For the fourth time in five years, they won a division championship. And, for the fourth time in five years, they lost in the first round of the playoffs.

“We get here every year. We have a good season. We win 90 games,” Bagwell said. “Then we have it tough when we get here. I don’t know what the answer is.”

NL PLAYOFFS

Division series; best of five

HOUSTON VS. ATLANTA

Braves sweep, 3-0

Game 3

Atlanta 6, Houston 2

ARIZONA VS. ST. LOUIS

Diamondbacks lead series, 2-1

Game 3

Arizona 5, St. Louis 3

Game 4--Today

at Arizona, 10 a.m., Fox Family