It’s a Good Evening for Braves

The Arizona Diamondbacks acknowledge that relief pitching is not among their strengths, and it’s too late to do anything about it now.

The Diamondbacks figure focusing on their shaky bullpen would only stir negativity when unity is needed most, but the Atlanta Braves repeatedly reminded them of the problem Wednesday night in an 8-1 victory in Game 2 of the National League championship series before 49,334 at Bank One Ballpark.

Leading, 3-1, in the eighth, the Braves sent 10 batters to the plate, pounded six hits, scored five runs and broke the game open against Arizona relievers Mike Morgan, Greg Swindell and Bobby Witt after starter Miguel Batista distinguished himself in the loss. The right-hander worked seven strong innings in only his second postseason start, but the two hits he gave up were costly.

Batista gave up a leadoff home run to Marcus Giles--the seventh leadoff homer in championship series history--and a go-ahead, two-run homer to Javy Lopez off the right-field foul pole in the seventh after the Diamondbacks had tied the score, 1-1, on Matt Williams’ run-scoring single in the sixth.

Again, Atlanta starter Tom Glavine was better than a playoff counterpart. The two-time Cy Young Award winner also worked seven innings in his 12th postseason victory, matching teammate John Smoltz for the most in baseball history.

“I always feel like Game 2 is an urgent game in any series,” said Glavine, who has victories in two playoff starts this season. “So much can happen, one way or the other. To me, it’s a huge swing game.

“Our focus was just on trying to get a game here. Try and get our split, go home and try and take advantage of our home-field advantage.”

The Braves’ bullpen showed the Diamondbacks how things are done in the final two innings. Steve Karsay had two strikeouts in a perfect eighth, and Smoltz continued to impress in his second career as a closer with a perfect ninth in a non-save situation.

Lopez, sidelined in the division series because of a severely sprained left ankle, showed why the Braves were eager to have him back in the lineup. He delivered another clutch playoff homer on the first pitch from Batista to get the Braves rolling.

“That situation, I was trying to get ahead on the first pitch,” said Lopez, the most valuable player of the 1996 NLCS. “He walked Andruw Jones on four pitches, and I was trying to be aggressive.”

The Braves’ five-run eighth deflated a raucous sellout crowd that did its part to try to help the Diamondbacks take a commanding lead in the best-of-seven series. The series is even with play shifting to Turner Field for Game 3 on Friday, and the Diamondbacks’ bullpen is a front-burner issue again.

“Well, everybody would like to have a Karsay and a John Smoltz come in throwing 98, 99 [mph], but there’s not a lot of guys like that out there,” Arizona Manager Bob Brenly said. “I mean, our guys are obviously not power pitchers. They rely on movement and location. Certainly, the location wasn’t there tonight.”

That’s for sure.

Brenly removed Batista after he had thrown 51 strikes in 80 pitches, turning to the 42-year-old Morgan. The 20-year veteran retired the first two batters, and then the show started.

Julio Franco singled to center and Chipper Jones walked with cleanup batter Brian Jordan on deck. Jordan doubled past left fielder Luis Gonzalez, driving in Franco and Jones and extending the lead to 5-1.

Left-hander Swindell, 36, entered to face left-handed batter B.J. Surhoff, but the textbook matchup did not work in Arizona’s favor. Surhoff hit a two-run homer to right, quickly ending Swindell’s work. Rey Sanchez added a run-scoring single against right-hander Witt, 37, to close the scoring and complete the Braves’ dugout celebration.

“You have to give a lot of credit to Batista, he did a great job, but the key for us is to get to their starting pitcher early and hope to get into their bullpen,” Jordan said.

“That’s going to be the key for us to win this series. It [the Diamondbacks’ bullpen] has been exposed.”

Actually, it had been before Wednesday.

Arizona relievers were fourth in the league with a 3.88 earned-run average during the regular season, and had only 16 blown saves. But the group is old, not especially talented and has often handcuffed Brenly in his rookie season at the helm.

“We have guys that are crafty,” he said. “They rely on movement and location. When they’re hitting their spots, they usually get a lot of ground balls. When they miss their spots, the ball gets whacked.”

Apparently, they were missing a lot Wednesday.

NL PLAYOFFS

Championship series; Best of seven

ARIZONA vs. ATLANTA

Series tied, 1-1

Game 2

Braves 8, Diamondbacks 1

Game 3--Friday

at Atlanta, 5:15 p.m., Ch. 11

Starters--Diamondback RH Albie Lopez vs. Brave RH Kevin Millwood