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 Tuesday, October 5
Sparse crowd, puny offense hurt Braves
 
Associated Press

 ATLANTA -- Greg Maddux took another playoff loss, but the puny Atlanta offense and the smallest Braves' postseason crowd since the 1914 World Series had to share the blame.

The Houston Astros got home runs from rookie Daryle Ward and Ken Caminiti as the NL Central champions opened the best-of-5 Division Series with a 6-1 win Tuesday over the Braves.

Greg Maddux
Greg Maddux allowed two runs but dropped to 9-9 career in the postseason.

"We didn't do much offensively," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. "It didn't look pretty. We had some chances."

One of them came in the fifth inning after Gerald Williams had tied the game at 1 with a two-out single off Shane Reynolds. Bret Boone followed with an infield hit and Reynolds pitched around Chipper Jones, walking him on four pitches to load the bases.

Cleanup hitter Ryan Klesko, however, struck out on a 2-2 fastball to end the threat.

"Ryan gets a hit there with the bases loaded, it changes the complexion of the game," said Jones. "There were a lot of what-ifs? The bottom line is we didn't get anything done today with runners on and two outs."

The other opportunity for the Braves came in the fourth with two outs and runners on first and third, but Andruw Jones popped to second for the third out.

The NL East champion Braves, who had won 10 straight division Series games, including a three-game sweep of the Astros in 1997, lost for only the second time in 14 first-round games since the series was started in 1995.

Maddux, who had been 4-0 previously in division play, dropped to 9-9 in postseason play, but could have been a winner had the offense produced.

"I was happy with the way I pitched. That's a game I certainly very easily could have given up 6 or 7 runs, but didn't," he said.

"On a personal side, I'm glad I hung in there. It just didn't work out. The other pitcher threw a better game," said Maddux.

The Astros, who had dropped six of seven to the Braves during the regular season, including two to Maddux, got only two runs off the Atlanta right-hander in seven innings.

He gave up 10 hits, walked four -- two intentionally -- and struck out five and escaped from two bases-loaded, one-out jams to keep it close.

Atlanta, which had captured its eighth division title of the decade, only had seven hits off Reynolds and three relievers before a crowd of only 39,119 at Turner Field (50,062 capacity) on a near-perfect baseball day with a blue sky and temperature in the low 70s.

"It was certainly disappointing," said Chipper Jones. "It takes away from our home-field advantage, something we worked six months for."

The Braves, with 103 regular-season wins, had the most in the majors and earned the home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs.

But, he said the team didn't do enough to get the crowd excited.

"If we do one little thing on offense to ignite the crowd, to get them behind us and get them standing up and clapping, maybe the outcome is different," said Jones.

The previous smallest crowd was 34,365 at Boston's Fenway Park between the Braves and Philadelphia Athletics in Game 4 of the 1914 World Series.

 


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