Braves Don’t Release Fish First Inning Decidedly Different In Game 2

They were in a similar situation a night earlier. First inning. Two outs. A runner on. A chance for a big inning.

The only difference Wednesday was the Atlanta Braves didn’t waste the opportunity. And because of it, they lashed back at the Florida Marlins with a 7-1 win in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series in front of 48,933 fans at Turner Field.

After an off-day, the series, tied at one game apiece, moves to Florida for the next three games. Atlanta’s John Smoltz, looking to become the winningest pitcher in postseason history, will face rookie Tony Saunders on Friday.

On Wednesday, though, the Braves avoided going to Florida and staring an upset in the face. They did it by scoring three runs in the first, two on Ryan Klesko’s home run. It also helped that Tom Glavine allowed just three hits in 7-2/3 innings.

“We wanted to get something going, and I did that,” said Kenny Lofton, who led off the first with a bunt single and went to second when Florida catcher Charles Johnson made his first throwing error in 175 games. “After we jumped out, we never looked back.”

Klesko’s homer provided the distance the Braves needed and gave them reassurance that the nightmare of wasted opportunities that haunted them in losing Game 1 had ended.

It came after Keith Lockhart followed Lofton with a run-scoring triple. But with nobody out and Lockhart at third, Chipper Jones and Fred McGriff struck out. Then Klesko drove a first-pitch fastball deep into the right-field seats.

“When I saw that ball go into the seats, that’s when I was reassured things would be okay,” said Jones, who homered in the third to build the lead to 5-0. “That was a huge home run. If we only get one run, that’s something of a moral victory for (pitcher Alex) Fernandez. So many times, we’ve been in that situation and let the guy off the hook. Today, we did not let that happen. And then we stayed on top of them.”

The Braves had wasted a similar chance in the first inning Tuesday. They had a run in, the bases loaded and two outs when manager Bobby Cox sent Javy Lopez to pinch-hit for Eddie Perez. He grounded weakly to third. The Marlins went on to win the game 5-3.

Wednesday, the lead in hand, the Braves put Florida under the kind of pressure it hasn’t seen in its brief postseason history. When Klesko’s homer landed, the Marlins were down by more than one run for the first time in the playoffs. It was also the first time Florida had allowed more than one run in an inning in the postseason.

It was time to see how the Marlins would react. They didn’t, mostly thanks to Glavine. He went through the order the first time without allowing a hit and allowed just a broken-bat single through five.

“We knew that (Game 1) wasn’t typical of them,” Marlins first baseman Jeff Conine said. “We knew it was going to get a lot tougher.”

It did. Jones’ homer in the third helped force Fernandez from the game earlier than in any start this year.

Braves 7, Marlins 1 Florida AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Abbott 2b 4 0 2 0 0 1 .500 Renteria ss 3 0 0 0 1 0 .143 Sheffield rf 3 0 0 0 1 1 .167 Bonilla 3b 4 0 0 0 0 2 .000 Conine 1b 2 0 0 0 1 1 .000 Vosberg p 0 0 0 0 0 0 — d-Counsell ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .500 Eisenreich lf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000 CJohnson c 2 1 0 0 1 0 .167 Zaun c 0 0 0 0 0 0 — DWhite cf 3 0 1 1 0 1 .125 AFernandez p 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 ALeiter p 0 0 0 0 0 0 — b-Cangelosi ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 FHeredia p 0 0 0 0 0 0 — Daulton 1b 0 0 0 0 1 0 .000 Totals 27 1 3 1 5 7 Atlanta AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Lofton cf 5 1 1 0 0 3 .100 Lockhart 2b 3 2 2 1 0 0 .500 Graffanino 2b 2 1 1 0 0 1 .500 ChJones 3b 5 2 3 3 0 1 .444 McGriff 1b 3 0 1 0 1 1 .286 Klesko lf 3 1 1 2 1 0 .333 Bautista lf 0 0 0 0 0 0 — JLopez c 2 0 1 1 1 0 .167 Tucker rf 2 0 0 0 0 0 .000 a-AJones rf 2 0 1 0 0 0 .333 Blauser ss 4 0 1 0 0 0 .286 Glavine p 2 0 0 0 0 2 .000 Cather p 0 0 0 0 0 0 — c-Colbrunn ph 1 0 1 0 0 0 .500 Wohlers p 0 0 0 0 0 0 — Totals 34 7 13 7 3 8 Florida 000 000 010 1 Atlanta 302 000 20x 7 a-fouled out for Tucker in the 5th. b-popped out for Leiter in the 6th. c-singled for Cather in the 8th. d-fouled out for Vosberg in the 9th. ECJohnson (1). LOBFlorida 4, Atlanta 8. 2BAbbott (1), DWhite (1), Graffanino (1), JLopez (1). 3BLockhart (1). HRChJones (2) off AFernandez; Klesko (2) off AFernandez. RBIsDWhite (1), Lockhart (1), ChJones 3 (4), Klesko 2 (3), JLopez (1). SGlavine. SFJLopez. GIDP Renteria, Eisenreich, Blauser. Runners left in scoring position Florida 2 (Renteria, Counsell); Atlanta 3 (Lockhart, Tucker, AJones). DPFlorida 1 (Bonilla, CJohnson and Daulton); Atlanta 2 (Blauser, Lockhart and McGriff), (Blauser, Lockhart and McGriff). Florida IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA AFernandez L,0-1 2-2/3 6 5 5 1 3 60 16.88 ALeiter 2-1/3 3 0 0 0 1 34 0.00 FHeredia 1-1/3 3 2 2 2 2 35 13.50 Vosberg 1-2/3 1 0 0 0 2 16 0.00 Atlanta IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA Glavine W,1-0 7-2/3 3 1 1 4 5 127 1.17 Cather 1/3 0 0 0 0 1 4 0.00 Wohlers 1 0 0 0 1 1 13 0.00 Inherited runners-scored-Vosberg 3-0, ALeiter 1-0, Cather 1-0. T-2:51. A-48,933 (50,528).