ATLANTA (REUTERS) — Mark DeRosa delivered a key two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Atlanta Braves a 5-3 victory Wednesday that knotted their National League Division Series at one game apiece.
The series shifts to Chicago’s fabled Wrigley Field for the next two contests in the best-of-five series with Game Three set for Friday night.
Greg Maddux (16-11, 3.96 ERA) is scheduled to face the Cubs’ ace Mark Prior (18-6, 2.43 ERA).
A reserve second baseman, DeRosa was in the lineup in place of Marcus Giles, who fell awkwardly running to first base late in Game One. DeRosa’s double into the gap in left-centerfield came with two runners on and two out and gave the Braves new life in this series after the Cubs had tied the game at 3-3 in their half of the eighth inning, scoring a run off ace closer John Smoltz.
Smoltz, whose 45 saves were second in the major leagues, bounced back to close out the Cubs in the ninth to earn the victory.
Earlier, the battered and bruised Giles had come into the game in the sixth inning as a pinch hitter and delivered his own clutch, two-out hit that gave the Braves a 3-2 lead.
Braves starting pitcher Mike Hampton gave up two runs in the first inning but was solid thereafter, striking out nine in six innings of work as the Braves held the Cubs off the scoreboard until the eighth.
Hampton, 31, was making his eighth postseason start while his counterpart with the Cubs, 22-year-old Carlos Zambrano was making his first.
Both flirted with danger throughout the night.
Hampton walked the first two batters he faced on a total of nine pitches and then served up a double to Sammy Sosa that bounced off the top of the centerfield fence, giving the Cubs a 1-0 lead.
Cubs manager Dusty Baker briefly argued Sosa should have been credited with a three-run home run.
The Cubs added another run before Hampton finally found his groove, striking out the next three batters he faced, all with the bases loaded, to cut the Cubs’ rally short.
Hampton went on to strike out the side in the second inning, giving him six strikeouts in a row and establishing a new division-series record and tying a Major League Baseball postseason record.
The Braves cut the lead in half in the bottom half of the first and tied the game at two in the fourth inning when Chipper Jones, Lopez and Andruw Jones delivered three-straight singles, with Chipper Jones scoring the tying run.
The hits were the first for the heart of the powerful Atlanta order in the series.
Smoltz came on in the eighth inning with a 3-2 lead but allowed two hits and a sacrifice fly to Tom Goodwin to set the stage for DeRosa’s heroics.
The Braves, after collecting only three hits in their 4-2 loss in Game One, out-hit the Cubs 13-6.
