So Much For Tradition Rookie, Smoltz Splendid As Atlanta Wins Opener

Hallowed ground and howling fans. Mantle and DiMaggio.

The Atlanta Braves took all that tradition and trashed it.

Nineteen-year-old Andruw Jones homered twice in wiping out one of Mickey Mantle’s records, and John Smoltz and the Braves sent the New York Yankees to their worst World Series loss ever, 12-1 Sunday night in Game 1.

“The tradition and the talk at Yankee Stadium is nice, but you can’t get caught up in it,” Smoltz said. “You’ve got to do your job.”

The Braves did it by brutalizing New York the same way they humbled St. Louis in the N.L. playoffs.

The Yankees had a week off to watch Atlanta outscore the Cardinals 32-1 in the last three games of the NLCS. And now they know the defending champions are just as potent in person - despite a one-day rain delay, a four-hour traffic jam and jeering Yankees fans.

“This crowd was great,” Braves manager Bobby Cox said. “It’s really not that bad here. It’s what baseball is all about.”

So is hitting and pitching, Atlanta-style.

“The last time I saw pitching like that was when I watched them play the Cardinals,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said. “Well, obviously, you come off a series where you were down three games to one and you come back and score the way they did against the Cardinals. They had a couple of days off and kept it right up.”

Jones hit a two-run homer off Andy Pettitte in the second inning, then lined a three-run shot off Brian Boehringer in the third that made it 8-0. By then, Yankees fans, who had waited 15 years for the Series, were already silent.

Jones, who began the season as a member of the Class A Durham Bulls, became the youngest player to homer in the Series. He was a year younger than Mantle, who would have turned 65 on Sunday.

Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, who threw out the first ball, are part of the reason the Yankees won a record 22 championships. But Jones, who grew up on the Caribbean island of Curacao, was more interested in making his own mark at Yankee Stadium.

“I really didn’t follow the Yankees so much when I grew up,” he said.

Game 2 will be Monday night. Greg Maddux, moved up a day because of the rain, will start for Atlanta against Jimmy Key.

“We’ve been on a roll,” Cox said. “St. Louis caught us awfully hot those last three games, and the Yankees caught us hot tonight. Hopefully, we can continue it for three more games.”

On a day when the Yankees hoped to recapture some of their glory with their record 34th Series appearance and first since 1981, Jones stuck it to them. By the sixth inning, with Atlanta ahead 12-1 and a light rain falling, many of the 56,365 fans had left.

“You can’t say enough about the offense,” Smoltz said. “It means a lot when we can go out there and jump on them early. It really helped me settle down.”

The blowout matched the biggest ever in a Series opener, equaling an 11-0 romp in 1959 by the Chicago White Sox over Los Angeles.

Jones became the 25th player to homer in his first Series at-bat, and the first to connect in his first two Series at-bats since Oakland’s Gene Tenace in 1972. He was the first player to hit two homers in a game since Philadelphia’s Lenny Dyktra in 1993.

In Atlanta’s last game, Jones homered in the 15-0 rout of the Cardinals in Game 7 on Thursday night.

“He’s about as good a prospect as you’re going to see in any organization,” Cox said.

Smoltz, meanwhile, was holding the Yankees hitless until Wade Boggs’ RBI double with two outs in the fifth. After overcoming four walks in the first two innings, he retired nine straight batters.

Smoltz improved to 4-0 in the postseason this year and 9-1 overall in 17 career starts in the postseason. The major league leader in wins and strikeouts this year, he left after six easy innings of two-hit ball.

Fred McGriff lined a home run off the foul pole in the fifth, and Jones started a three-run sixth with an infield hit, an odd play in which his bat broke and the barrel tangled up Boggs at third base.

Later in the inning, Marquis Grissom and Mark Lemke hit RBI singles and Chipper Jones had a sacrifice fly.

While routs were nothing new to the Braves - they routed St. Louis 14-0 in Game 5 and won by 15 runs in Game 7 - the Yankees were not so used to such beatings.

The Yankees had played 186 previous games in World Series, most in history, but had never lost by more than eight runs.

But after Pettitte retired the Braves in order in the first inning, nothing could help the A.L. victories leader.

Javy Lopez, MVP of the N.L. playoffs, singled with one out and Jones homered to left with two outs.

Jones was the youngest player to start in the Series since Phil Cavarretta was a younger 19 in 1935 for the Chicago Cubs.

Jeff Blauser opened the third with a single, Grissom also singled and Lemke sacrificed. Chipper Jones and McGriff followed with RBI singles and Lopez walked, finishing Pettitte.

It was Pettitte’s fastest knockout since April 30, when he lasted an inning in Baltimore.

“I’ve got one job to do and that’s to keep us in the ballgame. I didn’t do it tonight,” Pettitte said.

“Obviously, it’s tough to come back against their pitching staff.”

The night certainly started out well for the Yankees, with a sellout crowd loud and ready for action.

Braves 12, Yankees 1

Atlanta AB R H BI BB SO Avg. Grissom cf 5 2 2 1 0 0 .400 Lemke 2b 4 0 2 1 0 0 .500 CpJones 3b 4 1 1 3 0 0 .250 McGriff 1b 5 2 2 2 0 2 .400 JLopez c 4 2 1 0 1 1 .250 EdPerez c 0 0 0 0 0 0 —- Dye rf 5 0 1 0 0 1 .200 AJones lf 4 3 3 5 0 0 .750 Klesko dh 4 1 0 0 0 1 .000 Blauser ss 3 1 1 0 0 0 .333 a-Polonia ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Belliard ss 0 0 0 0 0 0 —- Totals 39 12 13 12 1 6 New York AB R H BI BB SO Avg. DJeter ss 3 1 0 0 1 1 .000 Boggs 3b 4 0 2 1 0 0 .500 BeWilliams cf 3 0 0 0 1 1 .000 TiMartinez 1b 3 0 1 0 1 1 .333 Fielder dh 4 0 0 0 0 1 .000 Strawberry lf 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Raines lf 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 O’Neill rf 2 0 0 0 1 0 .000 Aldrete rf 0 0 0 0 0 0 —- b-Hayes ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Duncan 2b 3 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Fox 2b 0 0 0 0 0 0 —- c-Sojo ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 .000 Leyritz c 3 0 1 0 1 1 .333 Totals 31 1 4 1 5 5

Atlanta 026 013 000 - 12

New York 000 010 000 - 1

a-struck out for Blauser in the 7th. b-flied out for Aldrete in the 10th. c-grounded out for Fox in the 9th.

E-Duncan (1). LOBAtlanta 3, New York 8. 2B-Boggs (1). HR-McGriff (1) off Boehringer; AJones 2 (2) off Pettitte, Boehringer. RBIsGrissom (1), Lemke (1), CpJones 3 (3), McGriff 2 (2), AJones 5 (5), Boggs (1). SB-CpJones (1). S-Lemke. SF- CpJones.

Runners left in scoring position-New York 4 (DJeter, BeWilliams 2, Fielder).

Runners moved up-Blauser.

Atlanta IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Smoltz W,1-0 6 2 1 1 5 4 104 1.50 McMichael 1 2 0 0 0 1 13 0.00 Neagle 1 0 0 0 0 0 10 0.00 Wade 2/3 0 0 0 0 0 5 0.00 Clontz 1/3 0 0 0 0 0 2 0.00

New York IP H R ER BB SO NP ERA

Pettitte L,0-1 2-1/3 6 7 7 1 1 54 27.00 Boehringer 3 5 5 3 0 2 71 9.00 Weathers 1-2/3 1 0 0 0 0 19 0.00 JNelson 1 1 0 0 0 1 13 0.00 Wetteland 1 0 0 0 0 2 17 0.00 Inherited runners-scored-Boehringer 2-2, Weathers 2-1.

T-3:02. A-56,365 (57,545).