Tuesday, October 19
By Bob Klapisch
Special to ESPN.com
ATLANTA -- After five games, five titanic wars in the NL Championship Series, the
Mets and Braves have arrived at their October crossroads. It's at our
doorstep now, Game 6, packaged as baseball's gift to America. It's perfect
postseason drama, more compelling than anything the Yankees and Red Sox
could muster in the last week.
|  | | The Mets celebrated long into Sunday night after their Game 5 win. |
But who does this moment really belong to? It depends on
whose perspective you seek.
For the Mets -- still woozy from their 4-3, 15-inning win on Sunday --
getting to Game 6 means they've finally made the Braves take them seriously.
After listening to months of snickering and side-of-the-mouth comments, Bobby
Valentine knows that everyone, even the Yankees, takes the Mets seriously now.
That's why the Mets have such a loose, reckless feel about them, making
them more dangerous than ever. As reliever John Franco said, "we've made the Braves think twice about us. They're a veteran team, and I wouldn't go as far
as to say we've gotten into their heads. But I'm pretty sure they never
thought this series would come back to Atlanta."
Indeed, the Braves have a much grimmer viewpoint of the NLCS. Of course
they do. Atlanta took a fast 3-0 lead in the Series, and for amusement,
watched John Rocker start a WWF-type war with Shea fans.
But that was before Atlanta lost Games 4 and 5 in New York, making the
Mets only the second team in baseball history to win two games after losing
the first three in a postseason series. Nobody has won three straight after falling into a 3-0 hole.
Atlanta's Kevin Millwood, who starts Game 6
tonight, insists nothing about the Mets' rebirth surprises the Braves, since,
in his words, "we knew they were a good team."
But Millwood no longer exudes any of the Braves' early-series confidence.
Instead, he now concedes, "anything can happen." This humility comes from an
appalling lack of clutch hitting in Game 5, when Atlanta put 25 runners on base and
stranded 22 of them. In one stretch in the middle innings, nine of 14 Braves
reached base, and not one crossed the plate.
No wonder Atlanta hitting instructor Don Baylor said, "it's a real
problem." By allowing the Mets to breathe, there exists a very real
possibility of a Game 7, and beyond that, another World Series without the
Braves, who've already become experts in underachievement and disappointment.
One Met veteran went as far as to say: "The Marlins crushed them (in the 1997 postseason) and the Padres did the same thing last year (in the NLCS). You think the Braves aren't thinking about that right now? You think they're not saying, 'Here we go again?' They're only human. They have to be."
Of course, the Braves do have several undeniable advantages. First, they
have two chances to get to the Series; the Mets have only one. Second, the
Braves are playing in the warm, loving embrace of Turner Field, not Shea's
open-air asylum. And finally, the Braves have a fully-rested Millwood, as
opposed to the Mets, who are asking Al Leiter to start on three days' rest for only the second time in his career.
Toss the ingredients into the blender, and the odds become the Braves'
ally, overwhelmingly so. But logic and statistics don't seem to matter much
anymore. In fact, the Mets believe Leiter's short rest actually will work to their advantage.
"This is the time of the year you should be
pitching on pure adrenaline," said manager Bobby Valentine. "You don't want to be too strong for that."
Leiter says, simply: "I'll do whatever it takes" to win.
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The Marlins crushed them (in the 1997 postseason) and the Padres did the same thing last year (in the NLCS).
You think the Braves aren't thinking about that right now? You think they're
not saying, 'here we go again?' They're only human. They have to be.
” |
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Met veteran, on the Braves' mindset
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He's already assembled a strong October track record, having smothered the Reds in the
one-game playoff for the wild-card spot. And Leiter didn't allow the Braves
an earned run in seven innings in Game 3, a 1-0 loss that all but sent the
Mets onto that long, flat road to nowhere.
Yet, they're back, with a chance to re-shape reality and force
New York's first Subway Series since 1956. Ask any Met, and they'll tell you Game 6 -- and Game 7, if there is one -- is fueled by more than just talent. It's a measuring stick of guts. Or courage. Or fearlessness.
Whatever name we give it, Franco said, "it's something that you're born
with. And Al's got it."
"No question, Al Leiter has it," Valentine said in agreement.
None of the Mets has to be reminded that Leiter is well acquainted with
this end-of-the-world landscape. He did, after all, pitch Game 7 of the
1997 World Series for the Marlins, and he has spent the last month with the
weight of the franchise on his shoulder.
In fact, the very last thing Leiter intends to do before Game 6 is hide in his hotel room. He'll be out early, walking the streets of Atlanta, talking to
fans, breathing the air, absorbing the drama.
"I definitely don't need anyone to pump me, tell me this is a big game or
anything like that," Leiter said. "I already know what's at stake here.
That's why, when it gets to be around game time, I want everyone to leave me alone. I know what to do."
Bob Klapisch of the Bergen (N.J.) Record is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. |  |
