Here`s one way to look at it: A loss is a loss whether the score is 1-0 or 13-5 as it was here Wednesday when the Braves, for the second game in a row, put the hammer on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League Championship Series.
As can be expected, Jim Leyland, the Pittsburgh manager, was disappointed. But Leyland has been around long enough to know that in big league baseball what happened yesterday has no effect on what happens today and today on tomorrow.
”Right now, everything is uphill for us,” Leyland acknowledged. ”But most everything is dictated by your next starting pitcher. If he pitches a good game, in most cases, then we`ll win. Say he wins-and I think he will-and then we win another game Saturday and the series is even at 2.”
”Very easy math,” observed Pittsburgh coach Rich Donnelley, who was listening.
This may seem to be wishful thinking, especially after what`s happened in the first two games, but Tim Wakefield will be going for the Pirates when play resumes Friday night in Pittsburgh. He will be opposed by Tom Glavine, the Braves` 20-game winner.
And who is Tim Wakefield?
He is 26, out of Melbourne, Fla., originally signed by the Pirates as a first baseman. He couldn`t hit but was fooling around with a knuckleball. His manager was impressed and told him to keep working on it.
Soon thereafter, having failed as a hitter, Wakefield was converted into a pitcher. He`s a smart young man, also with a sense of history. He wears uniform No. 49, in tribute to Charlie Hough of the White Sox and Tom Candiotti of the Dodgers, both of whom also carry No. 49.
So did Hoyt Wilhelm, a highly successful knuckleballer who pitched a no-hitter but for many years thereafter worked late relief. Wilhelm appeared in more than 1,000 games. His plaque hangs in the Hall of Fame.
Wakefield was brought up from the bushes July 31. He finished the season with an 8-1 record. Without him, the Pirates, more than likely, wouldn`t have won the NL East for the third time in a row.
”I know he`ll be excited, but I doubt if he`ll be nervous,” Leyland said. ”He`s a young pro.”
Easier said than done. Even established pros such as Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke have been unable to produce in the postseason pressure. Van Slyke seems to be loose and has been swinging at good pitches. Not so with Bonds.
Bonds has been impatient at the plate and whaling away, 1-for-6 in the two games thus far. His playoff average for the last three years is .157-8 for 51. Van Slyke is 1-for-9 for two games. Like Bonds, his only hit has been a single. His aggregate playoff average with the Pirates is .167, 10 points higher than Bonds, which is nothing.
Van Slyke and Bonds were consistently productive during the regular season. They hit third and fourth in the order. If they don`t come around the Pirates are probably doomed.
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”It`s been embarrassing for all of us,” Van Slyke said in Wednesday`s twilight, minutes before the Pirates boarded their bus for the trip to the airport. ”But we belong. We`re a good team. We know that.”
The first two games, Van Slyke insisted, have not been demoralizing. Still, the Braves have outscored the Pirates 18-6. Worse, the Pittsburgh runs have been scored after the Braves had opened comfortable leads: 4-0 in Game 1, 8-0 in Game 2.
The Braves knocked out Danny Jackson Wednesday with a four-run, second-inning burst, then added four more in the fifth on Ron Gant`s grand slam off Bob Walk.
The Pirates finally awoke with a four-run seventh against Steve Avery. Going into the seventh, Avery, who had two shutouts last year, had worked 22 1/3 scoreless innings, a playoff record, bettering the mark of 18 set by Oakland`s Ken Holtzman in 1973-74.
When Avery departed, the Pirates had cut the Atlanta lead in half, 8-4. But the Braves answered the challenge with five in their half of the seventh. Said Van Slyke, ”We were feeling pretty good about ourselves but it was taken away very quickly.”
The Braves have been solid in the field. They made two more outstanding plays Wednesday, but Van Slyke was responsible for the defensive gem. In the second inning, when the Braves had only a two-run lead, Van Slyke ran to the warning track and made an over-the-shoulder grab on Avery`s drive.
”It kept us close,” Van Slyke said later. ”You don`t expect a pitcher to drive the ball 395 feet. I was the most surprised person in the ballpark.” The bigger surprise is the Braves winning the first two games with ease. If Wakefield doesn`t pitch a strong game Friday, it`s doubtful all the king`s horses and all the king`s men will be able to put the Pirates together again.