 |
 |
|
| | Monday, October 11 | |||||
| The Chipper factor Yes, Chipper Jones has ripped the Mets apart this season: 16-for-40 (.400) with seven home runs and 16 RBI. Chipper hit more homers and drove in more runs against the Mets than against any other team this year. Of course, that's nothing new. In his career vs. the Mets, Chipper is hitting .361 with 18 home runs and 53 RBI in 62 games. While Jones had just one RBI against the Astros in the Division Series, he was walked five times in four games. In his career, Jones has also been a productive postseason hitter, batting .317 in 52 games. Who does Chipper like to hit on the Mets' staff? Pretty much anybody. He's 7-for-22 (.318) with two homers off Rick Reed; 4-for-12 (.333) with a dinger off Masato Yoshii; slugging over .600 against Al Leiter; he even has one hit in four at-bats against Armando Benitez -- a home run.
During the regular season, the Mets' bullpen drew accolades as the best in the business. Indeed, the pen was 31-19 with a 3.67 ERA (third in the NL). Armando Benitez was a dominating strikeout pitcher and became an elite closer; Dennis Cook and John Franco give the Mets two solid lefties to bring in. However, the Braves' bullpen was just as good: 33-14 with a 3.58 ERA. Over the years, Atlanta's bullpen has been blamed for their postseason defeats, but their relief work has actually been excellent in recent years. Most importantly, closer John Rocker has seemed unfazed by the October spotlight. In 10 career playoff appearances, he hasn't allowed a run. The same cannot be said for Benitez, who allowed Jay Bell's go-ahead double in the Mets' eventual Game 4 victory. Benitez also served up some memorable late-inning home runs while with the Orioles, including home runs to Cleveland's Marquis Grissom and Tony Fernandez that lost two games in the 1997 ALCS. Yoshii's hot hand Should Masato Yoshii be starting Game 1? Well, he has been terrific down the stretch. Beginning with an eight-start stretch on Aug. 18, he allowed run totals of 1, 1, 0, 2, 2, 1, 1, 2. He wasn't quite as good in his playoff start against Arizona, allowing four runs and six hits in 5.1 innings. Bobby Valentine deserves credit for sticking with Yoshii, who started off 1-3 with a 7.52 ERA through four starts. Yoshii even lost his spot in the rotation for a spell in late July, only to return when Rick Reed pulled up lame. Yoshii started three times this season vs. the Braves, going 0-2 with a 5.94 ERA. Bad-luck Braves? The Braves were big favorites in the past two NLCS, against the Marlins in 1997 and the Padres in 1998, only to fall in six games both seasons. What happened? Well, a little bit of bad luck. In 1997, the Braves outscored the Marlins 21-20, but lost the crucial Game 5, 2-1. If you remember, that was the game Livan Hernandez pitched a three-hitter and stuck out 15 -- with help from the liberal strike zone of umpire Eric Gregg. Who can forget Fred McGriff being called out to end the game on a pitch that was at least a foot off the plate? Last year, the Braves scored just 18 runs against San Diego. A key was the surprise pitching of Sterling Hitchcock, who won twice and allowed just one run in 10 innings. Much of Atlanta's problem was a weak lineup against left-handed pitching -- one game against Hitchcock featured Ozzie Guillen, Tony Graffanino, Danny Bautista, Eddie Perez and Gerald Williams. Hard to win with a lineup like that. Mr. Postseason No pitcher has ever won more postseason games than John Smoltz. In 24 playoff starts, he is 12-3 with a 2.55 ERA and has won some of the biggest games in Braves history. Let's put it this way: in 19 career starts in the LCS and World Series, Smoltz has pitched at least six innings in 18 of them. He's allowed two runs or less 13 times. He allowed more than four runs only once (five). He's 8-3 and in two of those losses he allowed zero earned runs. And you wonder why Smoltz wishes they would play fewer regular-season games and more playoff games? | ALSO SEE Mets vs. Braves series page
 | |||||
