NEW YORK (AP) — The way Greg Maddux was pitching, one run would have been plenty.
The Atlanta Braves didn’t need to go on another rampage, relying instead on Maddux’s eight shutout innings to beat the New York Yankees 4-0 Monday night for a 2-0 lead in the World Series.
Fred McGriff drove in three runs as the Braves won their fifth straight game in the postseason, a span in which they’ve outscored opponents 48-2. On this night, though, Maddux put the focus right back on Atlanta’s awesome starters.
The win moved the defending champions halfway toward another title, and sent the Series to Atlanta for the next three games — if all three are necessary.
Because of an earlier rainout, there will be no travel day. Instead, Game 3 will be Tuesday night, with 1995 World Series MVP Tom Glavine starting for the Braves against David Cone.
Maddux made it look easy, allowing six hits, permitting only two runners past first base and walking none. The lone time the Yankees put two runners on base in an inning, the four-time Cy Young winner induced Wade Boggs to bounce into a double play and got Bernie Williams to ground out to end the sixth.
Mark Wohlers struck out the side in the ninth for the Braves, allowing a two-out single to Cecil Fielder.
With nothing to cheer for, frustrated Yankees fans took to running on the field in the later innings. In fact, five of them touched second base, more people than the Yankees’ offense put there. The game ended with a small section of Braves family members and friends chanting and chopping behind home plate.
It was the kind of neat, efficient performance that prompted the Yankees to court Maddux when he became a free agent after the 1992 season.
Maddux took a tour of New York, seeing Yankee Stadium and taking in the show “Miss Saigon” on Broadway, and got a $34 million, five-year offer. Shortly thereafter, he accepted $28 million from the Braves for the same five years, saying he thought they had a better chance to win the World Series.
The most action Maddux had on the mound came while showing off his seventh straight Gold Glove. He fielded five grounders, and also twice covered first base for putouts.
Maddux struck out two in improving to 7-4 lifetime in the postseason, including a 3-1 mark this year. He also inflicted a bit of damage on the Yankees, hitting Derek Jeter on the left wrist with a pitch — the mishap caused a bruise that forced Jeter to wear an icepark between innings.
The shutout lowered the Braves’ staff ERA to 1.43 in 12 games this postseason. It also made Atlanta just the 12th team in 92 World Series to win the first two games on the road.
Maddux and the Braves also sent the Yankees to their sixth straight loss in the Series. New York lost its last four in 1981 to Los Angeles, and fell 12-1 in the opener against Atlanta.
The Yankees will be at a deficit in Atlanta, too, when they lose the designated hitter.
Yankees starter Jimmy Key, who beat Atlanta twice while with Toronto in the 1992 Series, never settled into a rhythm. He did not retire three straight batters until the fifth.
McGriff hit RBI singles in the first and third innings and had a sacrifice fly in the fifth. Added to his two RBIs on Sunday night, he set a record with 15 RBIs in a postseason. McGriff broke the mark of 14 set by Reggie Jackson in 1978, although he had only the AL playoffs and the World Series to do it for the Yankees.
Mark Lemke doubled with one out in the first and McGriff singled with two outs. A leadoff double by Marquis Grissom in the third set up another single by McGriff for a 2-0 lead.
Lemke singled for his fourth hit of the Series in the fifth, Chipper Jones doubled and McGriff had a sacrifice fly. Atlanta made it 4-0 in the sixth on a double that popped out of Jeter’s injured glove hand — ending Terry Pendleton’s 0-for-24 slump — and a single by Grissom.
Andruw Jones, who homered twice and drove in five runs in the opener, was 0-for-3 and hit by a pitch. The 19-year-old rookie made one nice play, safely diving around first baseman Tino Martinez after apparently being picked off by catcher Joe Girardi in the second.
Game Notes:
Another sign of how things are going the Braves’ way — both Glavine and Cone tried to travel to Atlanta on Monday so they’d be rested for Game 3, but only Glavine made it. Cone’s plane was stuck on the runway because of a computer problem, so he returned to Yankee Stadium.
Darryl Strawberry, still bothered by a broken right toe, did not start for New York. Tim Raines took his place in left field. Strawberry has three homers in 37 career at-bats against Maddux.
Pendleton finished the regular season in an 0-for-15 slump, and was hitless in nine postseason at-bats before his gift double.