Andy Pettitte was overprepared to start Game 1 in the World Series and lost. Thursday, the Atlanta Braves were unprepared for the mastery and new look that this 24-year-old New York Yankee brought to the mound for Game 5. They paid dearly in a 1-0 loss.
Therefore, the suddenly ragged Braves crawl to New York for Saturday’s Game 6 like millions before them, down on their luck and looking for a break on those mean streets. A Yankee Stadium throng will welcome them to their arena much as the Romans once dealt with the Christians.
“We should win,” manager Joe Torre said. “Sure, it’s pressure. But nice pressure.”
The Yankees swept through Atlanta like wildfire. Behind 2-0 when they arrived, they return home with a 3-2 lead and a chance this weekend to win their first World Series since 1978.
They can only hope this isn’t the end of the road for them, because a 8-0 postseason record in opposing parks has carried them to this point and now they are in need of some home cookin’. Two straight losses for them would have the New York police on riot alert.
“We have to understand we can’t let our emotions overrun us,” cautioned Cecil Fielder, who batted in Thursday’s only run. “They have one of the better pitchers (Greg Maddux) in baseball going out there Saturday.”
Reliever John Wetteland shut the doors on Fulton County Stadium by getting Javy Lopez to ground out to third baseman Charlie Hayes with Chipper Jones at third and one out in the ninth. Jones doubled against Pettitte as the leadoff hitter.
But after an intentional walk from Wetteland to pinch hitter Ryan Klesko, pinch hitter Luis Polonia flied out to right for a dramatic finish to an edge-of-the-seat game in which the only run was unearned because of Marquis Grissom’s error in center.
Paul O’Neill barely overtook Polonia’s deep drive, which was hit behind him. He was fully extended as he made the catch on the run.
“I wasn’t watching,” said Pettitte, who had a towel covering his head while Wetteland pitched. “When he hit it, I looked up and there was just enough space between the guys. I saw Paul running. But I just watched for the reaction from the other guys, and when they started to jump up, so did I.”
This was a different Pettitte than the left-hander who was gone after 2 1/3 innings in the opener. He tried to pitch inside once too often that game with his fastball, so he changed here to sinkers away.
“I don’t usually pitch away that much, but my ball was running like crazy and they never adjusted to it,” he said.
You knew the Braves were slip-sliding away when loser John Smoltz and Grissom opened the sixth with singles and went nowhere. Mark Lemke’s attempted sacrifice bunt turned into a forceout at third when Pettitte’s throw beat Smoltz’s slide. Then Chipper Jones grounded into a double play, also started by Pettitte.
“Pettitte’s a cat on the mound,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “That wasn’t a bad bunt. The breaks have not gone our way much here.”
Jeff Blauser almost tied the score in the eighth with a smash to the left-field wall. But Darryl Strawberry made a running catch that took the wind out of Atlanta’s once billowing sails.
Grissom’s Gold Glove play in center was devalued in the fourth inning when his attempted basket catch on Charlie Hayes’ fly into right-center went awry for a two-base error. Grissom and Jermaine Dye converged on the ball, and Grissom was ham-handed in this situation.
“I should have had it,” he said.
“I’ve never seen him miss one, ever,” said Cox.