Cleveland Imitating History Atlanta Grabs Two-Game Lead In Series
The last time the Cleveland Indians played in the World Series, in 1954, they won 111 games, one of the great regular-season performances in history. And the New York Giants swept them in the World Series.
The 1995 Indians could face a similar fate. They won 100 games during the regular season, and yet they are down 2-0 in the World Series. Atlanta catcher Javier Lopez broke a sixth-inning tie with a two-run homer, propelling the Braves to a 4-3 victory in Game 2 Sunday night.
“This a great feeling,” Lopez said. “Everybody wants to be a hero. It’s something you never forget.”
Atlanta left-hander Tom Glavine was the winning pitcher, despite laboring through six innings. Mark Wohlers, the dominant closer the Braves lacked in 1991 and 1992, threw the last 1-1/3 innings for the save.
“It’s huge,” Braves rookie third baseman Chipper Jones said of the victory. “The win tonight ensures we’re coming back to the Chop Shop to finish things out.”
The Game 1 starters, Greg Maddux and Orel Hershiser, pitched almost without resistance. Glavine and Cleveland’s Dennis Martinez, on the other hand, were not nearly as fine, regularly falling behind in the count and tempting fate with the occasional belt-high pitch over the middle of the plate.
Maddux completed Game 1 with 95 pitches; Glavine threw 99 in the first six innings, before being lifted for a pinch hitter. Martinez, inspiring with his control in the final game of the American League Championship Series, walked three and hit another batter in 5-2/3 innings. If Game 1 was pitching perfection, Game 2 was plain old pitching imperfection.
The Braves fell behind early because of a mistake by Glavine, in the second. Albert Belle led off by slapping an outside fastball to right, a single. Indians first baseman Eddie Murray, the following hitter, whacked Glavine’s weak offering over the left-field fence.
Cleveland led 2-0, and if Martinez had been pitching the way he did against Seattle last Tuesday, the Indians could’ve felt confident about their chances of tying the series at a game apiece.
The Braves made him pay in the sixth. Tied 2-2, Justice opened with a single, a looper to left played cautiously by Belle. The ball landed and bounced high - off Belle’s glove and behind him. Justice, jogging around first, saw this and ambled into second base. Ryan Klesko pulled a grounder to the right side, advancing the potential lead run to third. Martinez was laboring, closing fast on his 100th pitch. Martinez needed just enough ummph to finish off the Braves’ catcher, a sharp breaking pitch or a well-placed fastball.
Instead, he threw a floater, a pitch so awful that even on replay it was hard to tell whether Martinez was trying to throw a breaking pitch or a changeup. And there were many replays of that pitch: Lopez hammered a low line drive over the center-field wall.
“Dennis struggled the entire game,” said Indians manager Mike Hargrove. “I didn’t see him mixing his fastball very well”