Braves Puzzled by Honeycutt

The Atlanta Braves think it’s silly.

They don’t understand why anyone would say such a thing, least of all veteran St. Louis Cardinal reliever Rick Honeycutt.

But if the Cardinals want to play that game . . .

And what was it Honeycutt said?

“I’m tried of seeing that chop every year,” Honeycutt said. “Let’s show Atlanta where they can stick that tomahawk.”

The remark made headlines in Atlanta, where the Cardinals and Braves will open their league championship series Wednesday night.

“It surprises me, coming from a veteran,” Atlanta third baseman Terry Pendleton said.

Second baseman Mark Lemke said: “Why is he saying stuff like that? You won’t see us getting into something like that.”

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Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said he probably will go with a four-man rotation during this best-of-seven series, using Denny Neagle in Game 4.

Neagle was 0-1 against the Cardinals this season, but yielded only two earned runs in seven innings.

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Cardinal center fielder Ray Lankford, who batted only once in the first round of the playoffs because of a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder, expects to return to the lineup Wednesday.

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Atlanta pitcher Greg Maddux said Monday that the Braves had been leery of playing the Dodgers in the first round.

“We didn’t want to play them right off the bat,” he said. “Too many things can go wrong in a short series. You kidding me? With their pitching staff, we had our work cut out for us.”

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The Braves are in the league championship series for the fifth consecutive year, and so is Cardinal outfielder Ron Gant. . . . The Braves are 13-5 favorites to win the pennant. They swept the Cardinals in their six games at Busch Stadium in St. Louis and won nine of 13 overall.