Glavine Makes It Bad Experience for Astros

HOUSTON — Turn on a baseball broadcast this time of year, and hardly an inning passes before an announcer talks up a player with “playoff experience.” This is a good thing for a player to have, presumably, but rarely does the announcer explain why, or how, that experience might affect the game.

Tom Glavine spoke of it loud and clear Wednesday, with artistic brilliance nurtured over a decade of postseason play. With no margin for error, in an environment that would have rattled many other pitchers, Glavine worked calmly and effectively, throwing eight shutout innings for the Atlanta Braves in a 1-0 victory over the Houston Astros.

The best-of-five division series resumes Friday in Atlanta, the Braves leading two games to none, the Astros on the verge of first-round expulsion yet again.

“We either win three in a row or we go home,” Houston catcher Brad Ausmus said. “There’s no other way to break it down.”

The Braves sputtered en route to another division championship, winning the fewest games of any playoff entrant and failing to shake the upstart Philadelphia Phillies until the final week of the season.

Now they are one victory away from the National League championship series, thanks to two victories in which Glavine, Greg Maddux and newfound closer John Smoltz--possessor of seven Cy Young awards and 85 postseason appearances--have pitched 17 of 18 innings.

“When you’re facing guys like Maddux and Glavine, no success is pretty much the norm,” Houston outfielder Lance Berkman said. “You need to get a break here or there to win the game.”

The Astros caught a few breaks on defense--the running Braves lined into three double plays in five innings against Houston starter Dave Mlicki--but shortstop Julio Lugo’s third error of the series cost the Astros an unearned run in the second inning.

There were no breaks for the Astros on offense, not against the unflappable Glavine. Jeff Bagwell hits him very well, so Glavine simply pitched around him, walking him twice, but walking no one else. In a highly charged atmosphere, he took a deep breath and threw slow, slower and slowest, befuddling the home team. He did not give up an extra-base hit.

The Astros this season scored more runs than any NL team that does not play its home games at Coors Field, yet they managed to put only two runners into scoring position Wednesday.

Both times, Glavine fell behind the next batter, three balls and no strikes, with the home crowd jacking up the decibel level on a day the retractable roof was closed. Each time, the batter failed to reach base, and the Astros failed to score.

With one out in the fifth inning, Vinny Castilla singled, and Ausmus followed with a line drive that dented the top of the 19-foot wall in left field. A few inches higher, the ball clears the wall, and Ausmus has his second home run in as many days. But, with a single instead, the Braves had runners on first and third, and Chris Truby hit for Mlicki.

This was the first postseason at-bat for Truby, 27, who played five minor league seasons before advancing past the Class A level and who hit so poorly this season that the Astros replaced him with Castilla, who had been released by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. At this first hint of a rally, and with the tying run at third base, the crowd went absolutely nuts.

Truby took three ball. Then came a strike, on a pitch Truby and his teammates insisted was outside. That’s part of playoff experience too.

“If it wasn’t a strike, it wasn’t like it was blatantly off the plate,” Glavine said.

Then Strike 2, swinging at a fastball, and Strike 3, swinging at a changeup.

“I think it was probably more a matter of experience versus inexperience than anything else,” Houston Manager Larry Dierker said.

“Everybody tries to figure out what that means,” Glavine said. “If it means one thing, it means you have the ability to be in those situations and trust yourself when you get into trouble.

“First and third, everybody screaming? Doesn’t matter. I still need to make a pitch to get out of the inning. Sometimes, you can get caught up in the situation. If you’re in that situation for the first time, it’s hard to ignore those things.”

Craig Biggio grounded out to end the inning, and the Astros did not get another runner into scoring position until the eighth, when Jose Vizcaino reached second with two out. Lugo took three balls, took a strike, then flied out.

“That’s the only time you can say experience definitely has an advantage,” Smoltz said. “If you haven’t gone through that, you can’t tell a young guy it’s 3-0, relax. All that experience has an advantage.

“But you’ve still got to execute. They don’t talk about experience if you’re stinking up the place.”

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B-Minus

The Astros have made the playoffs four of the last five seasons but are only 2-11 in those games--primarily because of a lack of production from “Killer B’s” Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio and Derek Bell or Lance Berkman. A look:

1997

Game 1--Atlanta 2, Houston 1

Game 2--Atlanta 13, Houston 3

Game 3--Atlanta 4, Houston 1

* Killer B’s--Bagwell (1 for 12, 0 RBIs), Bell (0 for 13, 0 RBIs), Biggio (1 for 12, 0 RBIs)

*

1998

Game 1--San Diego 2, Houston 1

Game 2--Houston 5, San Diego 4

Game 3--San Diego 2, Houston 1

Game 4--San Diego 6, Houston 1

* Killer B’s--Bagwell (2 for 14, 4 RBIs), Bell (2 for 16, 1 RBI), Biggio (2 for 11, 1 RBI)

*

1999

Game 1--Houston 6, Atlanta 1

Game 2--Atlanta 5, Houston 1

Game 3--Atlanta 5, Houston 3 (12 inn.)

Game 4--Atlanta 7, Houston 5

* Killer B’s--Bagwell (2 for 13, 0 RBIs), Bell (1 for 3, 0 RBIs), Biggio (2 for 19, 0 RBIs)

*

2001

Game 1--Atlanta 7, Houston 4

Game 2--Atlanta 1, Houston 0

* Killer B’s--Bagwell (3 for 5, 0 RBIs), Berkman (1 for 8, 0 RBIs), Biggio (1 for 8, 0 RBIs)

Killer B’s in Playoffs

* Bagwell--8 for 44, .182, 0 extra-base hits, 4 RBIs

* Bell--3 for 32, .094, 1 HR, 1 RBI

* Biggio--6 for 50, .120, 1 2B, 0 HR, 1 RBI

* Berkman--1 for 8, 0 extra-base hits, 0 RBIs

* Combined--18 for 134, .134, 1 2B, 1 HR, 6 RBIs

Researched by Houston Mitchell