Braves Near a Knockout

NEW YORK —  Even an especially rude Big Apple greeting and the New York Mets’ best pitcher weren’t enough to unnerve the Atlanta Braves.

So guess who’s rattled now?

The Mets ganged up on the Braves in their unfriendly neighborhood, but the Braves emerged unscathed with a 1-0 victory in Game 3 of the National League championship series Friday night.

The Braves subdued an unusually hostile sellout crowd of 55,911 at Shea Stadium while taking a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series, scoring the only run on catcher Mike Piazza’s first-inning throwing error.

Playoff-tested starter Tom Glavine pitched seven scoreless innings and barely outdueled Met ace Al Leiter in the matchup of outstanding left-handers.

Atlanta left-handed setup man Mike Remlinger worked a perfect eighth, and then Manager Bobby Cox turned to closer John Rocker.

Rocker became Public Enemy No. 1 in New York this week because of his derisive comments about the Mets’ fans, and they vociferously expressed their feelings while Rocker raced from the Braves’ bullpen to the mound in the ninth.

The emotional Rocker retired the Mets in order after shortstop Walt Weiss’ error put the potential tying run on first base. Rocker earned his second save of the series and secured the victory for Glavine while helping push the Mets to the edge of the cliff.

Only two teams in professional-sports history have rallied from 3-0 deficits in championship series--none in the major leagues. The 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs and 1975 New York Islanders rallied from 3-0 deficits in hockey.

The Mets will have to make history to extend their roller-coaster season, and the Braves are determined to end the ride.

“This definitely isn’t the situation we want to be in, putting ourselves in a hole this tough,” Met first baseman John Olerud said. “But we’ve been in a lot of tough situations before this year, and we came up with the wins when we needed them.

“Obviously, the situation is pretty grim. Hopefully, we’ll be able to draw on those past experiences now.”

The Braves have created many of the Mets’ confidence-draining situations this season.

They improved to 12-3 against their East Division rivals. The Mets were shut out six times during the regular season--four times by Braves.

The Mets stranded runners at the corners in the second and fourth Friday, leaving eight on base overall.

Glavine was, well, Glavine.

He preserved the one-run lead while giving up only seven singles. The two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out eight and walked one in a performance reminiscent of his stirring 1995 World Series-clinching victory against the Cleveland Indians.

“Based on my experience, there’s a big difference being here up 3-0 than 2-1,” Glavine said. “It was my intention to do everything I could to be standing here [after the game] up 3-0.”

Friday’s loss to the Braves was the Mets’ most painful because of what’s at stake and what occurred.

Ignoring the charged crowd, the Braves scored in the first without benefit of a hit.

Gerald Williams walked to open the game and Bret Boone grounded to Leiter, who motioned to second before making an errant throw that pulled Olerud off the bag. The Braves had runners on first and second with Chipper Jones coming up.

“It was just a bonehead move on my part,” said Leiter, who otherwise distinguished himself by giving up only three singles in seven strong innings.

“You have to get an out in the situation. Just stupid.”

After Jones popped out, failing to advance the runners, the Braves completed a double-steal with Brian Jordan batting. Piazza slipped while throwing to second, and Williams scored from third when the ball went into center field.

“The guy [Boone] got a pretty good jump and my foot kind of slipped a little,” said Piazza, who singled twice in four at-bats. “Looking back, I should have held the ball.”

It was the first time this season the Mets have committed two errors in an inning.

Boone advanced to third and tried to score on Jordan’s fly to center, but he was nailed at the plate on Melvin Mora’s strong throw to complete an inning-ending double play. Boone knocked Piazza on his back in the violent collision, and Piazza played the remainder of the game with a mild concussion.

“I got my bell rung pretty good,” said Piazza, who also re-injured his left thumb when it was hit by Williams’ bat in the eighth. “I was a little woozy for a few innings.”

The Mets’ batters have appeared woozy during the series against the Braves’ dominant pitchers.

The Mets batted only .169 while losing the first two games of the series in Atlanta, so Manager Bobby Valentine drastically altered his lineup and batting order Friday.

Rookie Mora started in center, instead of Darryl Hamilton, and batted seventh. Benny Agbayani played right, ahead of Roger Cedeno, and batted fifth.

Robin Ventura dropped from fifth to sixth, and Valentine switched Olerud and Edgardo Alfonzo, batting them second and third, respectively. Facing the left-handed Glavine factored into Valentine’s moves, but jump-starting the offense was his primary concern.

The moves didn’t work as Valentine had hoped, and now the buzzer may sound on the Mets’ season today.

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NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES

TONIGHT’S GAME 4

ATLANTA (John Smoltz) at NEW YORK (Rick Reed)

4:30 p.m., Channel 4

Braves lead the best-of-seven series, 3-0

GIVE HIM SOME CREDIT

Bobby Cox keeps the Braves winning, and this year has been his finest work. Page 8

HARGROVE FIRED

Five consecutive AL Central championships not good enough for the Indians. Page 9