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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
NEW YORK (AP) -- No matter what the score, this was a classic.
Robin Ventura's grand slam-turned-single drove home the winning run in
the 15th inning to give the New York Mets their most improbable
comeback yet, a 4-3 victory Sunday over the Atlanta Braves in Game
5 of the NL Championship Series.
|  | | The Shea Stadium crowd erupts as Robin Ventura delivers the game-winning hit over the right-field fence. |
"If we come back and win this series, this will go down as one
of the great games in history," Orel Hershiser said after the
5-hour, 46-minute epic. "One of the ones they show on the sports
classic channel and cut out some of the dry parts, although there
will be hardly any."
The 482-pitch game ended in confusion, with two runners crossing
the plate while Ventura was mobbed by his teammates before he could
get to second base after hitting his apparent grand slam. Workers
pulled up the bases, the umpires left the field and no one knew the
score: 4-3, 5-3 or 7-3.
"I never saw it go out. Did it?" Mets manager Bobby Valentine
said as reporters told him of the confusion over the final score.
"Then it's a grand slam. But he never touched the bases? I'll be
doggone!"
About 10 minutes after the game ended, official scorer Red Foley
said Ventura was credited not with a grand slam but with a
run-scoring single, and the final was 4-3. The umpires insisted the
score was 5-3, counting both runners who came home before the
celebration. The NL eventually ruled it 4-3, saying Foley and the
Elias Sports Bureau were responsible for the final decision.
"The game ends in sudden death when the winning run scores,"
Elias spokesman Steve Hirdt said. "The only exception is on a home
run, assuming the player rounds all the bases. He never rounded the
bases."
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GAME 5 AT A GLANCE
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Every game a hero
Bottom of the 15th inning. Game tied 3-3. Robin Ventura, 1-for-18 in the series, stepped in against rookie Kevin McGlinchy. As one pundit would observe, "Room service for Mr. Ventura." The Mets third baseman crushed the 1-1 belt-high fastball over the right-field fence for an apparent grand slam and 7-3 victory. Except the Mets mobbed Ventura at second base and the hit was eventually ruled a single and 4-3 win.
Key number
45 different players used in the game, a LCS record. The Mets used 23 players, with only Al Leiter and Rick Reed not appearing -- although Reed was warming up in the bullpen to enter in the 16th inning if necessary. The Braves used everybody except Kevin Millwood, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.
Last word
"I was just looking for something in the middle of the plate I could get in the air. Everybody had all the tough at-bats before me, mine I was just trying to put the barrel on it. As long as I got to first base, I don't care. It was a great game to be involved in, to win it."
-- Ventura
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It was a single over the right field fence. It didn't matter. The Mets forced a Game 6 in Atlanta on Tuesday
night.
"I'm just glad we're actually going back after getting down
3-0," Ventura said.
The Braves still lead the best-of-7 series 3-2, but this was
another devastating blow after losing the previous night 3-2 on
John Olerud's two-out, two-run single in the eighth inning.
Atlanta was three outs away from reaching the World Series for
the first time since 1996 after Keith Lockhart's two-out,
run-scoring triple in the top of the 15th off Octavio Dotel broke a 2-2 tie -- the
first run scored in the game since the fourth.
But the Mets, who had to win their final four games of the
regular season just to make the playoffs, would not die.
After fouling off pitch after pitch, Shawon Dunston led off the
home half of the 15th with a single to center against 22-year-old
rookie Kevin McGlinchy, who then walked pinch-hitter Matt Franco.
Edgardo Alfonzo bunted the runners to second and third before
McGlinchy walked Olerud intentionally to load the bases. Todd
Pratt, who entered the game in the 14th after Mike Piazza suffered
a strained right forearm, walked on five pitches to force in the
tying run.
With the Shea Stadium crowd roaring, Ventura, who was 1-for-18
in the series, drove a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for an
apparent grand slam.
"It's very discouraging," said McGlinchy, making his first
appearance of the series. "It's one of those things you have to
forget. Baseball is a crazy game, this was a crazy game."
Braves manager Bobby Cox, who has used three starters out of the
bullpen during the postseason, chose not to call on Game 6 starter
Kevin Millwood for the potential save. Cox was concerned about the
muddy conditions on the mound as the game was played in a steady
rain from the sixth inning on.
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UNBELIEVABLE
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Sunday's dramatic Game 5 victory was just the latest this season for the Mets. They came back to make the playoffs after being down two games in the standings with three to play. They trailed in Game 4, but rallied with two runs in the eighth.
But was this the greatest comeback win in Mets history? They've had some memorable games in their history. Click here to read about five of the greatest and vote in the poll for the best of all.
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"(McGlinchy) is a big leaguer," Cox said. "He should be able
to throw strikes and get them out. We thought he would."
One run was all the Mets needed to cap an incredible day and
keep their season alive.
"I was just looking for something in the middle of the plate I
could get in the air," Ventura said. "Everybody had all the tough
at-bats before me, mine I was just trying to put the barrel on it.
As long as I got to first base, I don't care. It was a great game
to be involved in."
The Mets swept the Pirates on the final weekend to force a
wild-card playoff with Cincinnati, winning that game 5-0 to earn
New York's first postseason berth since 1988.
After putting themselves in an 0-3 hole against the Braves, they
need another four-game streak to advance to the World Series.
New York is halfway there, though the series now shifts back to
Atlanta. Game 7, which seemed improbable just a couple of days ago,
would be Wednesday night if needed.
The Mets become only the second team in baseball history to win
as many as two games after dropping the first three in a postseason
series. The Braves did it last year before losing Game 6 to the
Padres in the NLCS.
The most important game of the season ended with a pair of
rookies on the mound: McGlinchy and 23-year-old Dotel.
The New York bullpen pitched 10 shutout innings before Atlanta
broke through against Dotel in the 15th. Walt Weiss led off with a
single, stole second while McGlinchy was striking out and came home
when Lockhart hit a drive to deep right-center, falling just out of
the reach of Dunston.
Atlanta set a postseason mark by leaving 19 runners on base,
with at least one runner reaching from the third inning on. The
Braves were 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position.
The Mets used a postseason-record nine pitchers, including Game
2 starter Kenny Rogers. Rick Reed, who started the previous day,
was warming up to pitch the 16th, but he wasn't needed.
It was the longest LCS game by innings since the Mets needed 16
to beat Houston in the deciding game of the 1986 NLCS. It was
the longest postseason game by time ever, surpassing the 5-hour,
13-minute marathon between the New York Yankees and Seattle
Mariners in Game 2 of a 1995 Division Series.
Despite the rain, more than half of the sellout crowd of 55,723
stayed around to the end and were rewarded with a chance to do a
"14th Inning Stretch."
The Braves, after falling behind 2-0 in the first with Game 1
winner Greg Maddux on the mound, put up 13 consecutive zeros on the
scoreboard. Benny Agbayani walked and stole second in the 14th,
making him the first Mets player to get that far since the sixth.
But Rey Ordonez grounded out to second to end the inning.
Mets nemesis John Rocker made his fifth straight appearance,
pitching 1 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out two and keeping up
his war of words with the Shea Stadium faithful each time he walked
back to the dugout.
The Braves gambled for a victory in the top of the 13th when
Chipper Jones doubled into the right-field corner with Lockhart attempting to score from first.
It didn't pay off. Melvin Mora retrieved the ball in the
right-field corner, threw to second baseman Alfonzo, who wheeled
and made a perfect one-hop throw home to Piazza.
Lockhart, who was still at least 10 feet from home, tried to run
over the Mets catcher but couldn't knock the ball away.
Piazza suffered a strained right forearm on the play, though he
batted in the bottom of the 13th. After striking out to end the
inning, he was replaced by Pratt.
The Braves wasted another scoring opportunity in the sixth, when
Maddux missed an attempted sqeeze bunt and Ryan Klesko was tagged
out at the plate.
Olerud, the hero of Game 4, came through again in the first
inning against Maddux, driving a two-run homer over the right-field
fence. Olerud also homered the previous night and drove in all
three runs in New York's victory.
Masato Yoshii, making his second start of the series, struck out
the first two hitters and breezed through the first three innings,
allowing only one baserunner.
But he couldn't get an out in the fourth. Bret Boone and Chipper
Jones led off with back-to-back doubles, cutting New York's lead to
2-1. Brian Jordan followed with a single to left, bringing home
Jones with the tying run. After Yoshii walked Klesko, the Mets
called on Hershiser, who escaped the jam and went on to pitch 3 1/3
scoreless innings.
Notes
Mora started in right field in place of Roger Cedeno, who
was bothered by back spasms. ... Hershiser made only his second
relief appearance since 1989, the first coming in the Division
Series against Arizona. ... Rickey Henderson, who showered and left
the clubhouse just minutes after Game 3, angering Turk Wendell, started in left. ... The Mets returned to their normal
lineup, batting Alfonzo second, Olerud third, Piazza fourth and
Ventura fifth. ... Maddux, making his seventh appearance in the
NLCS, has never won two games in a series. ... Rocker has pitched
in 11 straight LCS games -- all six against San Diego in 1998 and
all five this year.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Atlanta Clubhouse
NY Mets Clubhouse
Mets vs. Braves series page
Klapisch: Nothing is impossible
The grand slam that wasn't
Eight relievers do the job for Mets
Braves had their chances, but failed to produce
RECAPS
NY Yankees 9
Boston 2
NY Mets 4
Atlanta 3
AUDIO/VIDEO
 Game 5 NLCS wrap-up with Dave Campbell.
avi: 2270 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN
 Robin Ventura says he's happy to be able to play another game.
wav: 158 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
Bobby Valentine is proud of his team.
wav: 239 k
RealAudio: 14.4 | 28.8 | 56.6
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