Padres Turn Atlanta Into Browntown

ATLANTA —  The 1995 World Series ring that is worn by the Atlanta Braves who were part of it then bears the inscription: “Team of the ‘90s.”

Cynics would call it a bit of self-indulgence that is both fact and fiction, blessing and curse.

The Braves have dominated their division, winning seven straight titles. The previous six translated to four World Series appearances (a fifth may have been derailed by cancellation of the 1994 Series), but only one World Series championship.

Now the Team of the ‘90s is down 0-2 to the San Diego Padres in the National League’s best-of-seven championship series, a deficit compounded by the weight of past Octobers, by the view of many that one World Series title isn’t the stuff of ring inscriptions.

They would say that the Braves--dominated by Kevin Brown in his three-hit, 3-0 masterpiece in Game 2 on Thursday night--can only dislodge the albatross by winning another World Series, an opinion disputed by Tom Glavine, a key contributor to those seven straight division titles.

“I’m not really concerned with how many World Series we have or haven’t won,” Glavine said after drawing the Game 2 loss. “I’m concerned about this series. I don’t care what people think. I don’t care if we sweep the next four and sweep the World Series, itdoesn’t make up for the last five or six years when we lost. Nothing can change that. Anybody who thinks another World Series will erase the past disappointments is sadly mistaken.”

At this point, with the Padres getting the next three games at home and having shackled a team that had won 10 straight games coming in, including a division series sweep of the Chicago Cubs, another World Series suddenly seems to be a distant objective. The Braves have 11 hits and two runs in two games and are batting .172. Brown struck out 11 and left Chipper Jones, Andres Galarraga and Ryan Klesko in the middle of the Atlanta lineup a combined one for 21.

“This was the best I’ve seen him, although Houston was probably saying the same thing a week ago,” leadoff man Walt Weiss said of Brown. “His fastball has so much movement, and now he has a forkball as well. You just don’t get that many pitches to hit.”

Weiss had a single in four at-bats, a moral victory. He is one for nine in the two games.

“He was overpowering,” Galarraga said of Brown. “He has a good sinker, slider and forkball, and he throws them all where he wants them and he can throw them from different motions.”

Brown is 6-0 in his last eight starts against the Braves, including 3-0 in his three NLCS starts of the last two years.

He is a Macon, Ga., resident who has suggested he would like to come home and pitch for the Braves when he becomes a free agent this winter.

The Braves don’t really have a vacancy in their renowned rotation but may be thinking that they would rather have Brown join them than continue to fight him.

Glavine, who lost to Brown in the decisive Game 6 of last year’s NLCS, lost again Thursday night when he lacked his usual precision, walking six while delivering 121 pitches in six innings.

“It was not exactly my ‘A’ game,” the 20-game winner and Cy Young Award candidate said, “but I battled well enough to give us a chance to win. Kevin has dominated the postseason and did again tonight.”

A Brown single in between singles by Chris Gomez and Quilvio Veras in the sixth produced the only run off the Atlanta southpaw, who said, “It was a little frustrating to get out of so many earlier jams and then give up three weak hits on good pitches, but that’s part of the game.”

Glavine is now 3-7 in the NLCS. His seventh loss tied a series record held by Jerry Reuss (0-7). If Glavine has deserved better, he knows that’s part of the game too.

With Greg Maddux going Saturday, Glavine and the Braves are still alive, but is their offense?

“It’s not dead, I guarantee that,” Klesko said. “Maybe it will be good to take a day off and go on the road.”

The Atlanta clubhouse was solemn and silent. There was no music, little conversation.

“Guys are upset, but nobody is screaming and breaking anything,” Glavine said. “The series is far from over. We know that. We’ve been on both sides of the coin.”

He referred to the fact that the Braves were down, 3-1, to the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1996 NLCS and came back to win and were up, 2-0, on the New York Yankees in the ’96 World Series and lost.

A new challenge now confronts the “Team of the ‘90s” as it attempts to validate that description.