Led by Kerry Wood, the Chicago Cubs beat the Atlanta Braves 4-2 in Game 1 of the National League division series Tuesday night for their first postseason victory outside of Wrigley Field since 1945.
"It's good to get that out of the way," said Dusty Baker, the Cubs' manager. "That's a big, big, big game in a five-game series."
Wood did it all. He limited the NL's best offensive team to two hits in 7 1-3 innings, and drove in the go-ahead runs with a double off 21-game winner Russ Ortiz in the sixth.
PHOTO: REUTERS
"He wanted this badly," Baker said. "A good pitcher turned into a great pitcher."
The Cubs were cheered on by thousands of their well-traveled fans, who transformed Turner Field into Wrigley Field South. The roar was enormous when Wood drove in two runs with a drive to the wall in left-center, breaking a 1-all tie.
"I've never seen anything like this," Chicago first baseman Eric Karros said. "At some points, it seemed like the Cubs fans were louder than the Braves fans."
PHOTO: AFP
Wood gave them plenty to cheer about. He struck out 11 and completely throttled the high-scoring Braves, a team that had six players with 20 homers and four with 100 RBIs during the regular season. The only major slip-up came in the third, when Marcus Giles homered.
"To give up two hits in 7 1-3 innings to that team and also drive in the winning run, I'd say he was pretty locked in for this game," said Joe Borowski, who struck out the side in the ninth for the save.
Trailing 4-1, Atlanta scored a run and knocked out Wood without getting a hit. A questionable call at first on a potential inning-ending double play allowed the run to score.
PHOTO: AP
But Kyle Farnsworth retired Javy Lopez on a bases-loaded grounder to short to end the threat.
"You can look at it like the glass is half-empty or half-full," said Braves closer John Smoltz, who didn't get a chance to perform his familiar task. "We've won three out of four before."
The Cubs had lost eight straight postseason road games since Claude Passeau pitched a one-hitter to beat Detroit in Game 3 of 1945 World Series.
Of course, Chicago lost that World Series. They've lost 10 straight postseason series since winning their last Series title in 1908.
Maybe this time will be different. Baker knows something about beating the Braves, having guided the San Francisco Giants to a first-round victory over Atlanta on the way to the World Series a year ago.
His new team goes to Game 2 on Wednesday night with a chance to take command of the best-of-five series. At worst, the Cubs will head back to Chicago with a split -- and the next two games before their adoring Wrigley rowdies.
Now, the Braves have to contend with their own history.
Winners of 12 straight division titles, they are haunted by the chances that got away. Since beginning its unprecedented run in 1991, Atlanta has just one World Series title.
Giants 2, Marlins 0
In San Francisco, Jason Schmidt, the 17-game winner with the National League's lowest ERA, pitched the Giants' first playoff shutout in 16 years, throwing a three-hitter for a 2-0 victory over the Florida Marlins in Game 1 Tuesday.
"Once spring training started, I was ready to roll this year," said Schmidt, who has gradually gained confidence since coming to the Giants from Pittsburgh two years ago. "I couldn't wait to get back here again."
Schmidt outdueled Josh Beckett while Barry Bonds and the Giants took advantage of a costly error by fill-in Florida third baseman Miguel Cabrera to score the go-ahead run.
After retiring Lee on a grounder for the final out, Schmidt twirled on one leg before his teammates surrounded him in celebration.
"He's just awesome to watch," reliever Scott Eyre said.
At 68, Felipe Alou wound up a winner while managing his first postseason game and 72-year-old Jack McKeon lost in his playoff debut.
Game 2 in the best-of-five NL series is Wednesday.
In the first inning, Bonds barely had two feet in the batter's box when catcher Ivan Rodriguez's glove shot out to signal an intentional walk, showing just how serious the Marlins were about not getting beat by the Giants star. The crowd of 43,704 booed lustily.
Bonds wound up 0-for-1 with three walks. Chad Fox intentionally walked Bonds with nobody on base in the eighth, and he came around to score on Edgardo Alfonzo's double.
On a day the teams combined for only six hits, the Giants scored their first run on a misplay.
Cabrera, starting in place of injured All-Star Mike Lowell, charged in on Alfonzo's fourth-inning bunt and made a wild throw to first. By the time the ball had stopped it was in the bullpen dirt and Rich Aurilia was headed for home.
After Alex Gonzalez reached on an error in the fifth, Schmidt retired the final 14 batters. Schmidt walked none and struck out five.
Beckett was almost as impressive in his playoff debut. He gave up two hits in seven innings, striking out nine and walking five. He struck out five straight during one stretch.
Beckett praised Schmidt.
"He's tough," Beckett said. "He threw probably 100 fastballs and I don't think he made a mistake on one of them. He outpitched me, what can I say?"
Twins 3, Yankees 1
In New York, the Minnesota Twins quickly put the big, bad Yankees in another postseason funk.
Torii Hunter circled the bases when his line drive resulted in a pair of misplays and the Twins finally beat New York, defeating the stumbling Yankees 3-1 in Tuesday's American League playoff opener.
New York had stomped on the Twins during the past two seasons, going 13-0 and outscoring them 90-36. But Minnesota won its seventh straight postseason opener, taking control of the series heading into Thursday's game, when Brad Radke opposes New York's Andy Pettitte.
Twins starter Johan Santana left after four innings because of a leg cramp, but Rick Reed, J.C. Romero, LaTroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado cobbled together a nine-hitter that gave the AL Central champions a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
"We have to be aggressive," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We run around the bases hard, try to take extra bases."
New York was favored in last year's division series, too, before Anaheim won in four games to end a run of four consecutive AL pennants. The Yankees have dropped four straight postseason games for the first time since the 1981 World Series against the Dodgers, not exactly what owner George Steinbrenner was expecting when he set payroll records last winter in an effort to get his team its first Series title since 2000.
New York's batters went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, getting an RBI infield single from Soriano in the ninth.
"When the game gets sloppy and the ball gets thrown around, that makes it tough," said Mike Mussina, who had been 20-2 against the Twins. "That's what the postseason is, minimizing mistakes. If you make a mistake in the postseason, they tend to be big ones."
Despite their troubles, the Yankees threatened to pull off yet another memorable ninth-inning comeback. But a spectacular leaping catch by Shannon Stewart against the left-field wall on a drive by Hideki Matsui helped Guardado limit New York to one run.
Minnesota went ahead in the third when speedy Cristian Guzman reached on a slow roller past the mound, slid into third on Stewart's single to left and scored on Luis Rivas' sacrifice fly.
Minnesota gave itself margin for mistakes in the sixth. With Matthew LeCroy on first following a leadoff single, Hunter lined a pitch toward Williams. In the past, the outfielder usually would have scooped up the ball, but now 35 and slowed following knee surgery last spring, he let it roll by him to the wall.
LeCroy scored and Hunter sped to third with a triple. When the relay throw from Soriano was way high, Hunter wound up coming home.
Many fans in the sellout crowd of 56,292 booed.
The Yankees knew they had opened with a stinker.
"There's nobody in this clubhouse that took them for granted," Pettitte said. "They went further in the playoffs last year than we did."
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