PITTSBURGH, OCT. 17 -- The Pittsburgh Pirates, who planned to be here from the day the season started, played like they knew they were already beaten. The Atlanta Braves, for whom all of this still is just a wondrous dream, played like they were certain that they couldn't lose.
And on a strangely lifeless evening in front of a less-than-capacity crowd at Three Rivers Stadium, the Braves extended their magical ride of 1991 by turning Game 7 of this usually tight and tense National League Championship Series into an anticlimax. They used a three-run first inning and the pitching of John Smoltz to cruise to a 4-0 victory over the Pirates tonight before 46,932.
Rookie first baseman Brian Hunter had three RBI, with a two-run home run in the first off John Smiley and a fifth-inning double against Bob Walk. And Smoltz made what was, for this series, an offensive explosion stand up. He went the distance, allowing six hits and one walk while striking out seven in his second win of these playoffs.
So the last three games of this series were shutouts, and the four total -- three by Atlanta -- are an NLCS record.
Conversely, Smiley allowed three runs in just two-thirds of an inning tonight, and the Braves never looked back. Just as they had done during their improbable turnaround during the season, the Braves were at their best when the spotlight was the brightest.
They overcame a 3-2 deficit in the series by winning the final two games here, and they shut out the Pirates over the last 27 innings in this ballpark (and the final 22 innings in the series overall). Atlanta pitchers -- led by series MVP Steve Avery -- permitted only 12 runs total, working to a 1.57 ERA. The Braves became the first team ever to win three NLCS games on the road.
"We thought if we could jump in right at the start tonight, maybe we could put their heads down," Hunter said. "I think we did that. . . . We stayed on top of them. We didn't let them up."
Tonight's crowd was 10,601 fans smaller than the record gathering that squeezed into the stadium for Game 2 last week, and the listlessness apparently rubbed off on the Pirates. A long fly ball by Andy Van Slyke with two runners aboard in the first inning was the closest they came to scoring. They got two runners to third base against Smoltz thereafter but failed to cash in each time, and they suffered an excruciating NLCS defeat for a second straight year.
"This one is right through the heart," Van Slyke said. "This one is very different than last year's" -- a six-game loss to the Cincinnati Reds. "This one you don't forget, not soon and probably not ever."
The Braves departed late tonight for Minneapolis, where they'll meet the Minnesota Twins -- who joined Atlanta this year in becoming the first clubs in baseball history to go from last place in one year to first in the next -- in the World Series beginning on Saturday. The Braves captured their fifth NL pennant, but first since the franchise was moved to Atlanta in 1966.
The Braves of '91 were a club coming off three straight last-place showings, without a finish above fifth place since 1984. In spring training, a .500 record was thought to be an unreachable target. But throughout the season, Atlanta persevered almost as well as it pitched or hit, overcoming a 9 1/2-game deficit at the all-star break to outlast the Los Angeles Dodgers in an NL West dogfight.
"What really helped us is that, from the end of July on, every game meant something for us," Braves Manager Bobby Cox said as champagne was sprayed all around him in his team's jubilant clubhouse. "We grew up down the stretch. I think we showed it again tonight: Our players did not back down from anything, in any circumstances."
The same could not be said of Smiley. The left-hander won 20 games during the season but was roughed up for a four-run first en route to a two-inning, five-run pounding in Game 3 loss to Smoltz in Atlanta. And by the time he departed the mound tonight to a round of boos, he had permitted eight hits and eight runs over 2 2/3 innings during the series. The Braves totaled 11 runs in 60 1/3 innings against the remainder of the Pittsburgh staff.
Tonight Smiley put himself in trouble immediately, walking Lonnie Smith to open the game. Smith went to third on Terry Pendleton's single and scored on Ron Gant's fly ball.
Smiley struck out cleanup batter David Justice for the second out. But his initial pitch to Hunter was a too-hittable fastball, waist-high and on the inside corner, and Hunter yanked a no-doubt-about-it shot that curled inside the left field foul pole for his first career postseason homer and a 3-0 advantage. Greg Olson's sharp single prompted Manager Jim Leyland to call for Walk, who escaped by getting Mark Lemke to hit into a force play.
"The two games I pitched just blew my season out of the water," a dejected Smiley said. "I feel like I lost 20 games. I feel like a rookie pitcher. It's a tough one to take home with you."
As with his previous start in these playoffs, Smoltz had to survive a first-inning scare. In Game 3, the right-hander surrendered a home run to Orlando Merced on his first pitch of the game, then settled in for a 6 1/3-inning, three-run performance. Tonight Smoltz gave up singles to Merced and Jay Bell at the outset, and brought the stadium to life.
But Pittsburgh's vaunted middle of the lineup floundered. Van Slyke provided some excitement by ripping a high, 2-1 fastball deep to right field -- "I was pretty sure it was out, but I was wrong," he said -- but Justice caught it at the fence. Bobby Bonilla popped up, Barry Bonds grounded out.
Van Slyke, Bonilla and Bonds batted a combined .200 for the series, with three RBI. They went three for 38 with runners on base. Appropriately, the Pirates' last-gasp attempt at a comeback ended with Bonds flying out with runners at first and third in the eighth. "I don't know how long it will take me to get over this," Bonds said. "I think I need a vacation."
All along, Smoltz seemingly was finding the groove that allowed him to go 12-2 during the second half of the season. "My concentration today was about the best it's ever been," Smoltz said.
When the Braves made it 4-0 off Walk in the fifth, many fans already were heading for the exits. Gant drew a one-out walk and stole his record-extending seventh base of the series (there were an NLCS-high 16 overall), and the Pirates intentionally passed Justice. Hunter then pulled a ground-ball double into the left field corner while Gant trotted home.
Said Van Slyke: "The team that deserved to win won. But that doesn't make it any easier for us to handle. . . . There wasn't anyone in this ballpark tonight who said back in April that they would win their division, beat us in seven and have a chance to win the World Series."
