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Greg Maddux

Greg Maddux won his first Cy Young Award in 1992, as a member of the Cubs. Mark Prior was 12 at the time and “I don’t remember a whole lot at 12,” he conceded.

Friday night Maddux gave a refresher course for the young Chicago right-hander, who is three years younger than Maddux was when Maddux won that first Cy Young.

Maddux couldn’t provide the hits off Prior that the Braves needed to stave off a 3-1 defeat, leaving him with a 5-3 career mark in division series play. But he virtually carried a team that couldn’t hit or play defense.

He went six innings and held the Cubs to two runs despite four Atlanta errors. He only allowed six singles, four in the first inning.

Maddux gave up singles to Kenny Lofton and Mark Grudzielanek to start the game, and after a stolen base and a wild pitch saw both of them score on a looping single by Randall Simon, who fought off a good pitch in on his fists.

Other than that, the evening was vintage Maddux. His outfielders were called on for only four putouts in his six innings.

Braves fielders made one error in the fourth, but it produced nothing for the Cubs as Alex Gonzalez was thrown out attempting to steal. Errors on consecutive balls in the fifth put Cubs at first and third; Maddux calmly got Simon on a threat-ending groundout.

“Greg is exactly the same pitcher I saw with us in ’93 when we got him,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “He may say differently, I don’t know, but he looks the same.”