ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, October 18, 1996 TAG: 9610180055
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: Associated Press
Maybe it was Dennis Eckersley's fist-pumping.
Maybe it was knowing that St. Louis put champagne on ice.
Maybe it was manager Bobby Cox's little pep talk.
Whatever it was, it caused the Atlanta Braves to unleash their fury on the Cardinals.
The Braves capped their comeback with the biggest blowout in postseason history, a 15-0 humiliation in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series on Thursday night that completed a remarkable rally from a 3-1 deficit.
Pitcher Tom Glavine hit a bases-loaded triple that highlighted a six-run first inning, and 52,067 crazed fans spent the rest of the evening partying as the Braves earned a chance to defend their World Series title.
Game 1 will be Saturday night in New York against the Yankees. The Braves have reached four of the last five World Series, making it this time by outscoring St. Louis 32-1 in three straight games.
``You wouldn't expect this many runs from any team,'' Cox said. ``You would never imagine it. I thought every game here would be very tight, low scoring.
``A couple of balls fell, and then it just steamrolled,'' he said. ``But when we were down 1-3, we felt like we could reel off three.''
After Atlanta good-luck charm Francisco Cabrera threw out a first ball - and before the fans broke into singing ``New York, New York'' - Glavine shut out St. Louis on three hits for seven innings. He got support from two-run homers by NLCS Most Valuable Player Javy Lopez, Fred McGriff and Andruw Jones. At 19, Jones surpassed Mickey Mantle as the youngest player to connect in a postseason game.
``The loss stings a lot because of the type of game it was,'' Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said. ``A lot of guys are bothered by it.''
The loss, making the Cardinals the only club to blow a 3-1 lead three times in the postseason, meant the end of Ozzie Smith's career.
The future Hall of Famer, who has announced his retirement, fouled out as a pinch-hitter in the sixth inning. The 41-year-old shortstop waved his helmet to a standing ovation, and drew hugs from his teammates in the dugout.
Though Marquis Grissom began the rout by singling on Donovan Osborne's first pitch, the Braves' playoff comeback clearly started before then.
It may have begun back at Busch Stadium when Eckersley pumped his fist forcefully in the air after closing out a Game 4 win that gave St. Louis the 3-1 lead. That prompted the Cardinals to put 20 cases of champagne on ice in anticipation of a clincher that never came, and seemed to anger Atlanta.
The Braves came out the next night and, after a brief talk from Cox, scored five runs in the first inning on their way to a 14-0 rout behind John Smoltz, sending the best-of-7 series back to Atlanta.
Greg Maddux was brilliant in pitching the Braves to a 3-1 win Wednesday night. And then Glavine, MVP of the 1995 World Series, finished off the Cardinals to even his career postseason record at 7-7 in 16 starts.
``I don't think we expected to dominate like this,'' Glavine said. ``Fourteen runs one night, 15 the next, you don't expect that.
``They made my job real easy tonight.''
Over the last three games the Braves outhit the Cardinals 46-17 and St. Louis' only run scored on a wild pitch.
The Cardinals had been the only team to twice blow a 3-1 lead, having done it in the 1968 and 1985 World Series - they lost 11-0 in Game 7 to Kansas City in that 1985 series.
St. Louis had never lost an NL playoff series, going 4-0 until running into Atlanta.
The Braves became the eighth team out of 48 to overcome a 3-1 deficit, and the first ever to do it in the NLCS. They also added to their legacy of playoff comebacks - they won the last two games of the 1991 NLCS to beat Pittsburgh, then came back the next year to defeat the Pirates in Game 7 when Cabrera's two-out, two-run single capped a three-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning.
``What happened this year against the Cardinals, that wasn't new for us,'' said Lopez, who hit .542 (13-for-24) in the series.
The Braves' 14-0 victory in Game 5 had matched the New York Yankees' 18-4 victory over the New York Giants in the 1936 World Series for the largest margin of victory in a postseason game.
NOTEL: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. NLCS Most Valuable Player Javy Lopez greets Andruwby CNBJones after Jones beltedu a two-run home run in the sixth inning of
the Braves' 15-0 pummeling of the Cardinals. color. KEYWORDS: BASEBALL