Saturday, October 05, 2002
Maddux must prove himself in postseason
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Greg Maddux and Cy Young — yep, THAT Cy Young — are the only pitchers in major league history to win 15 games in 15 straight seasons.
Yet when it comes to the playoffs, Maddux has been downright ordinary. A loss to San Francisco on Saturday, and he would tie teammate Tom Glavine for most career postseason losses with 14. The two shared the record until Glavine lost in Game 1 of the NL division series to the Giants.
“It's harder because you're facing the best teams, you're facing the best hitters and you're facing the best pitchers,” Maddux said. “I don't think it's any secret it's harder to beat first-place teams than last-place teams. I feel I've made mistakes in the postseason, but I look at my postseason career and I'm pretty happy with it.
“I got beat up pretty good early with the Cubs, but I've had just as many good games as I've had bad games.”
Maddux is 10-13 with a 3.24 ERA in 29 postseason appearances.
To make Saturday's plot a little more interesting, Maddux faces a former teammate he showed the ropes as a rookie — Jason Schmidt.
It will be Maddux the 16-game winner vs. Schmidt the 13-game winner in what stands to be the best pitchers' duel of the series so far, and in pitcher-friendly Pacific Bell Park to boot.
Maddux's start was pushed back to Game 3 of the best-of-five series because of a blister on his pitching hand. The teams split in Atlanta, leaving the series at one game apiece as it resumes in San Francisco with Games 3 and 4 this weekend.
Maddux reached 15 victories for the 15th consecutive season, matching the record set by Young from 1891-1905.
Manager Bobby Cox isn't concerned about Maddux.
“Maddux is Maddux,” Cox said. “I expect Greg to throw a good ballgame. He's ready, his finger is better and he's been pitching really well the last few months. His arm's never felt better, I'll tell you that.”
Schmidt considers himself lucky to have pitched with Maddux, a major leaguer by the age of 20 who's won four Cy Young and 12 Gold Glove awards.
“I remember when I first got here, drove up before opening day, he came up to me and said, 'Hey if you don't have a place to stay you're welcome to stay with me,”' Schmidt recalled. “I ended up staying at his house about a week. We were sitting down and watching games when we weren't playing. He'd say, 'See what this hitter's doing? Watch for this and watch for that.' It's the most special experience a player could have, especially a rookie. To do that with a Hall of Fame pitcher.”
While Maddux and Schmidt are battling on the mound, all eyes will still be on Barry Bonds. Did the San Francisco slugger's ninth-inning home run at Turner Field on Thursday do enough to finally get him going in the postseason?
Bonds insists his statistics don't matter and that he just wants to reach the World Series for the first time. But it will probably take some big blasts from Bonds to get the Giants there.
Bonds has eight homers off Maddux. But if the past is any indication, Maddux might not give him much to hit Saturday. Maddux has walked Bonds 22 times in 116 career at-bats.
“He's the best player in baseball, and he has been,” Maddux said. “It didn't happen this year. Barry's a guy who's too good. If he hit .280 like everybody else, he'd get pitched to more, but he doesn't.”
Bonds is hitting just .200 in the postseason for his career, has never been to a World Series and has never even won a playoff series in five trips to the postseason. His homer Thursday was just his second in the playoffs. The other came off Glavine in the 1992 NL championship series when Bonds was with Pittsburgh.
Even Giants manager Dusty Baker has struggled after the regular season — he is 0-for-2 in playoff series as a manager. The Giants are trying to reach the NL championship series for the first time since 1989.
Baker knows it won't come easily.
“It's never easy facing a guy like Maddux,” Baker said. “As far as his record is concerned in the postseason, that doesn't really come into play much. We know Maddux and he knows us.”
The batter behind Bonds in the order, Benito Santiago, has been San Francisco's best bet so far. The All-Star catcher is hitting .444 (4-of-9) with two RBIs and a run scored through the first two games.
Schmidt won a World Series ring with the Braves in 1995, though he wasn't on the postseason roster and appeared in just nine games during the season. His true rookie season was 1996, and that's when Maddux befriended him.
The 29-year-old Schmidt, making his first postseason appearance, is trying not to think about who he will be pitching against in the biggest game of his career to date.
“Every now and then little things come back to me that Greg might have mentioned,” Schmidt said. “When you're young and you think you know everything, you know, a lot of times they don't make sense.”
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Maddux must prove himself in postseason
