Win Knocked Out of Braves

NEW YORK — His first home run created nothing more than a tremor in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, it being a solo shot in the fifth inning that merely reduced a four-run deficit to three.

His second home run made the creaky old stadium literally quake with excitement.

Chad Curtis, a former Angel and Dodger outfielder who is a platoon player for the New York Yankees, led off the 10th inning with his second homer of the game, lifting the Yankees to a thrilling 6-5, come-from-behind victory over the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the World Series.

A Yankee Stadium crowd of 56,794 saw Curtis, in his first World Series start, blast a Mike Remlinger changeup well beyond the left-center field wall, giving New York a commanding 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. No team has come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the World Series.

The Yankees can close out a four-game sweep of the Braves and win their 25th World Series championship and third in the last four years with a victory tonight in Game 4, when Yankee right-hander Roger Clemens will oppose Brave right-hander John Smoltz.

“I think this is the game he wants,” Yankee right fielder Paul O’Neill said of Clemens, who is searching for that elusive World Series ring in his 16th big league season. “He wants an opportunity to win a World Series in Yankee Stadium.

“He’s dreamed of this all year, and now he has an opportunity to do it. We can’t wait. There’s not going to be a lot of people sleeping [Tuesday] night.”

Somebody pinch Curtis. He felt like he was dreaming Tuesday night. Every time Curtis stepped to the plate, he said he was “trying to do something small,” and all the 5-foot-10 Curtis did was come up extra large.

With the Yankees trailing, 5-1, in the fifth, Curtis lined a two-out homer to right against Atlanta starter Tom Glavine, igniting a comeback that would include Tino Martinez’s bases-empty homer in the seventh and Chuck Knoblauch’s dramatic two-run homer in the eighth.

Curtis said his goal in the 10th was to line a single up the middle, get bunted to second and race home with the winning run on a single. Instead, he trotted around the basepaths, wondering if his wobbly legs would make it all the way home.

“I’ve never hit a walk-off home run,” said Curtis, who hit five home runs this season, none in Yankee Stadium. “I’ve heard people talk about tingling--I’ve never felt that before.

“But I think somewhere between second and third I felt like there was electricity running through my legs. You’re coming home, seeing all your teammates there waiting for you in a World Series game. It was a big thrill.”

For the Braves, it was a big chill. They got a gutsy start from a flu-weakened Glavine, outstanding relief from closer John Rocker, and they outhit the Yankees, 14-9, after mustering only seven hits in Games 1 and 2. They held the heart of the Yankee order, Derek Jeter, O’Neill, Bernie Williams and Chili Davis, to two singles in 16 at-bats.

But they couldn’t stop Curtis.

“I was amazed when he was standing by the other players [during pregame introductions] how short he is and how powerful he is too,” Brave Manager Bobby Cox said. “Somebody asked me about who would be the star in the series; it’s always somebody you don’t expect. It’s not always the big stars that do things. You never know where it’s going to come from.”

Ditto for the Yankees’ pitching. Starter Andy Pettitte was rocked for five runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings, the Braves scoring once in the first when Gerald Williams singled, Bret Boone doubled and Chipper Jones hit an RBI groundout, and three times in the third, a rally highlighted by Brian Jordan’s RBI single and Jose Hernandez’s two-run double.

Boone had a triple-double by the fourth inning, his three doubles in his first three at-bats tying a World Series record set by Brooklyn’s Jim Gilliam against the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1953 World Series in Ebbets Field. Williams’ triple and Boone’s RBI double in the fourth made it 5-1.

The Braves had three hits in their first 49 at-bats of the series, but from the eighth inning of Game 2 through the fifth inning of Game 3, they went 16 for 35 (.457) with seven runs.

Enter Jason Grimsley and Jeff Nelson. The Yankee relievers silenced the Braves for the next 4 1/3 innings before handing the ball to untouchable closer Mariano Rivera, who threw a scoreless ninth and 10th to gain the victory and extend his scoreless-innings streak to 41 2/3 innings dating to July 21.

“You’ve got to give a lot of credit to Grimsley and Nelson, they came in and shut the door,” Davis said. “That’s what long relief is all about. Everyone talks about starters and closers, but our long relievers enabled us to win the game.”

The Yankees trailed, 5-3, in the eighth when Joe Girardi opened the inning with a single to right against Glavine, who had lost five to seven pounds since Friday because of severe flu-like symptoms.

Three pitches later, Glavine was really feeling ill. Knoblauch launched a 2-0 fastball on the outer half of the plate deep to right, and Jordan, who made a leaping grab at the wall to rob Girardi of extra bases in the third inning, elevated himself at the fence again.

With his glove a good foot above the wall, Jordan actually got a piece of the ball, but the force of his body crashing into the fence and his inability to get much of a grip on the ball prevented him from catching it.

Girardi, who saved a run by throwing out Boone on an attempted steal of third in the fourth inning, threw out pinch-runner Otis Nixon trying to steal second in the ninth, keeping Rivera out of trouble, and Curtis capped the comeback with his sudden-death homer in the 10th.

“I’m amazed by the way this team comes back, yet I’m not amazed, because we do things, we grind, we play nine innings a game,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said. “I think that’s the highest compliment I can pay our ballclub, that we go out there and play nine innings. And good things happen. Don’t ask me why good things keep happening to me, because I don’t have an answer.”

THE STREAK

The Yankees have won 11 World Series games in a row. New York lost the first two games in 1996 (* 10 innings):

1996

Yankees beat Braves, 4-2

New York 5, Atlanta 2

New York 8, Atlanta 6*

New York 1, Atlanta 0

New York 3, Atlanta 2

1998

Yankees beat Padres, 4-0

New York 9, San Diego 6

New York 9, San Diego 3

New York 5, San Diego 4

New York 3, San Diego 0

1999

Yankees lead Braves, 3-0

New York 4, Atlanta 1

New York 7, Atlanta 2

New York 6, Atlanta 5*

TONIGHT

ATLANTA

John Smoltz

11-8, 3.19 ERA

at NEW YORK

Roger Clemens

14-10, 4.60 ERA

5:15

Channel 4

ROSS NEWHAN

Glavine didn’t throw that many pitches, but made one too many. Page 6

TURNING POINT

Knoblauch’s homer should end criticism of his throwing. Page 6