Every week, I look through the weekly match-ups and find one that is a postseason rematch. This weekend, the Reds are traveling to Atlanta to take on the Braves, which brings me back to 1995.
1995 National League Championship Series :
Atlanta Braves 4, Cincinnati Reds 0
Key stories surrounding this series:
This was the first postseason after the 1994 strike, which cancelled the World Series. Perhaps because of that, attendance was rather lackluster in Los Angeles and Cincinnati. When the Reds played the Dodgers in the NLDS, the O.J. Simpson trial was just ending, perhaps explaining why there were so many empty seats at Dodger Stadium. In Cincinnati, there was no such excuse. In Games 1 and 2 of the NLCS, there were thousands of empty seats in the upper deck of Riverfront Stadium. Reds’ owner Marge Schott, when asked about the attendance, gave some lame excuses about it being a weeknight and so forth.
Reds manager and former World Series champion manager of the 1986 New York Mets Davey Johnson was fired immediately after this series through no fault of his own. Even if he had won the World Series, he would have been gone simply because Schott preferred bench coach Ray Knight, also a member of the 1986 Mets.
In 1995, the postseason was televised as part of the Baseball Network which regionalized each game. Every game was played at the same time, so if you were a fan of the Reds in Seattle, you were not able to watch Cincinnati. Comically, Braves’ owner Ted Turner was actually not in a market that allowed him to watch the NLCS, but he was able to pick it up via satellite. It was a terrible idea that was thankfully rectified the next year.
The Atlanta Braves were right in the middle of a dynasty that saw them win 14 division titles in a row from 1991-2005. However, these, led by manager Bobby Cox, were not given much recognition because they only won one World Series. It all came together in 1995 in a series that proved what dominant starting pitching can do.
When the Philadelphia Phillies brought back Cliff Lee this year to go with Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, many compared that rotation to that of the Braves who featured Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery. Time will tell whether the Phillies’ aces will be able to accomplish what the Braves’ aces did in 1995.
The Reds had some hardware of their own in 1995. Shortstop, Barry Larkin, was named the National League Most Valuable Player. They also got big offensive performances out of Ron Gant (29 homers, 88 RBI) and Reggie Sanders (28 homers, 99 RBI) in a strike-shortened year.
The Games:
The series started out in Cincinnati, where the Braves took a couple of extra-inning games. In Game 1, Reds’ ace Pete Schourek took a 1-0 lead into the ninth inning before the Braves rallied for a run to tie the game. They later won it with a run in the 11th when Mike Devereaux singled home Fred McGriff. In Game 2, the Reds and Braves were tied at two going into extra innings. The Reds certainly had their chance to win it in regulation. In the ninth, the Reds had the winning run on third when Braves’ reliever Greg McMichael threw a pitch in the dirt that catcher Javy Lopez miraculously stopped with his foot. When the game reached the tenth, it was all over. Reds manager Davey Johnson brought in one of his starter, Mark Portugal. With the bases loaded, Portugal uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the lead run to score. Javy Lopez delivered the back-breaker by hitting a three run homer to give the Braves 6-2 win.
The Reds headed to Atlanta down 2-0 in the series and having to face Greg Maddux, who had just finished off a phenomenal year going 19-2 with a 1.63 ERA and earning a Cy Young Award. He was opposed by David Wells, a pitcher who in later years would be considered one of the great postseason pitchers of his era. The game stayed scoreless through five innings before the Braves plated three runs in the sixth when Maddux’s personal catcher Charlie O’Brien hit a three run homer. Chipper Jones added to the lead with a two run shot in the seventh as the Braves rolled to an easy 5-2 win.
Bobby Cox decided to start Steve Avery instead of bringing back Tom Glavine on three days rest and Avery rewarded him with scoreless pitching. Pete Schourek delivered a gutsy performance that saw him stay in the game despite being hit with a line drive. He lasted through the sixth, but the Braves put the game and the series away with a five run seventh that saw them hit for the cycle as a team.
The 1995 NLCS was the only best of seven series sweep the Braves got in their run and it propelled them through the World Series where they defeated the Cleveland Indians four games to two.
MVP: Mike Devereaux
Fun Facts:
The Reds only scored 5 runs in this series, again proving what dominant starting pitching can do.
Reggie Sanders had a miserable, awful series–about as bad a four game stretch as a hitter can have. He went 2 for 16 with 10 strikeouts.
The Reds did not make the postseason again until 2010 when they were swept by the Phillies. They have now lost seven postseason games in a row. Oddly enough, they have also won nine World Series games in a row (1975 World Series-1990 World Series). Both streaks are still active. Without checking, I’d imagine that no other team has ever had two had two longer streaks active at the same time.