ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996 TAG: 9610220033
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press
The Atlanta Braves showed the New York Yankees that what they saw on TV was no fluke.
Nineteen-year-old Andruw Jones homered twice and drove in five runs as John Smoltz and the Braves sent the Yankees to their worst World Series loss ever, 12-1 on Sunday night in Game 1.
The Braves brutalized New York the same way they humbled St.Louis in winning the NL playoffs. The Yankees had a week off to watch Atlanta outscore the Cardinals 32-1 in the last three games.
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.
``The last time I saw pitching like that was when I watched them play the Cardinals,'' Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``To come back and score the way they did, they had a couple of days off, and they 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 their team to return to the Series, were already silent.
``We've been on a roll,'' Braves manager Bobby 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.''
Game 2 will be tonight. Greg Maddux, moved up a day because of the rain, will start for Atlanta against Jimmy Key.
On a day when the Yankees hoped to recapture some of their glory with their first Series appearance 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, 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 the late Mickey Mantle, who would have turned 65 on Sunday.
Jones also was the first player to homer 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 Dykstra in 1993.
In Atlanta's last game, Jones homered in the 15-0 rout of the Cardinals in Game 7 on Thursday night.
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. The major-league leader in wins and strikeouts this year, he left after six 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.
The Yankees had played 186 previous games in World Series, the most in history, but had never lost by more than eight runs. Certainly it never happened like this in the days of Joe DiMaggio, who threw out the ceremonial first ball. Helped by the Hall of Famer, the Yankees have won a record 22 championships.
NOTE: Please see microfilm for scores.
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines KEYWORDS: BASEBALLby CNB