Braves Losing Playoff Grip

It was another moment of postseason desperation for the struggling Atlanta Braves, whose 10-year playoff run has been marked more by disappointment than celebration.

The Braves turned to four-time Cy Young Award winner Greg Maddux on three days’ rest, hoping to enjoy October again, but now things are even worse for them and looking good for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Arizona pounded Maddux in his shortest career playoff outing, capitalizing on three Atlanta errors in one inning Saturday night in an 11-4 victory in Game 4 of the National League championship series before 42,291 at Turner Field.

The Diamondbacks lead, 3-1, in the best-of-seven series with Randy Johnson going for a knockout punch tonight in Game 5. Only three NL teams have advanced to the World Series when trailing 3-1 in the championship series.

Things appear bleak for the league’s team of the decade, and players acknowledged as much.

“What can we say? We’re down, 3-1, and facing Randy Johnson [today],” catcher Javy Lopez said. “If we want to continue the series, we must win.

“I know it’s Randy Johnson on the mound, and we all know he’s a pretty tough pitcher. But what can we do?”

The Braves haven’t done much right the last two games.

The Diamondbacks chased Maddux after three-plus innings. They scored four runs in the third when the Braves set an NL championship series record for errors in an inning--and equaled the major league championship series record--during their second consecutive night playing poor defense. The Braves committed four errors overall, including two by sure-handed shortstop Rey Sanchez.

“We tried to make plays and weren’t able to come up with them,” Sanchez said. “That’s no excuse, we have to make ‘em, but we just didn’t play good defense. I guess we were trying to do too much. But they’ve still got to win one more game, and this team is capable of winning three in a row.”

Former Dodger Craig Counsell again played a huge role for the Diamondbacks, going three for six with two doubles, four runs batted in and two runs.

The second baseman got the Diamondbacks started in the third, reaching on the second error and scoring the first run.

Counsell had a two-run double in the fourth to extend the lead to 6-2 and provided an insurance run with a double in the eighth after the Braves had cut the lead to 6-3.

He closed his big night with a run-scoring single in a four-run ninth, which was capped by Luis Gonzalez’s three-run homer. Counsell, batting .444 in the championship series, has emerged as the leading candidate for the series most-valuable-player award, and the Diamondbacks are one victory away from the World Series with the Big Unit going to the mound.

“Well, we don’t look at it that way,” Arizona Manager Bob Brenly said. “Randy, I’m sure, is just going to go out there and do what he’s done all season--give us his best effort, try to execute his pitches and give us a chance to win.”

Maddux was not successful in his attempt, losing for the second time in the series.

The right-hander, who lost to Johnson in Game 1, was 17-6 with a 2.49 earned-run average in 32 starts on three days’ rest entering Game 4. Against Arizona, Maddux gave up eight hits and six runs (four earned). The 11-time Gold Glove winner committed one of the errors in the third on a wild throw to the plate that led to a run.

“I felt I was throwing decent, but nothing worked out,” said Maddux, whose worst playoff outing previously was 31/3 innings for the Chicago Cubs in Game 4 of the 1989 championship series against the San Francisco Giants.

“We’ve been in this situation against the [St. Louis] Cardinals [in 1996] and we played good baseball [in winning the series, 4-3]. We’ve got [Tom Glavine] going [today], and he’s been throwing great. Maybe, he can get us back on the right track.”

The Diamondbacks overcame Albie Lopez’s second ineffective start of the playoffs. Lopez was removed after three shaky innings, but Brian Anderson provided 31/3 solid innings of relief.

Trailing, 7-3, in the eighth, the Braves loaded the bases with none out, getting three hits in a row against Miguel Batista, but scored only one run. Andruw Jones, who hit a solo homer in the second, crossed the plate when Lopez grounded into a double play against closer Byung-Hyun Kim, who relieved Batista. Marcus Giles then lined out to third baseman Matt Williams. Kim worked a perfect ninth.

The Braves figured they couldn’t play any worse defensively than they did in the fifth inning of Game 3--two mental blunders and a two-run error led to a three-run inning.

“You just don’t expect the guys that are making errors to make errors--at all,” Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said.