Asheville Citizen-Times du lieu suivant : Asheville, North Carolina • Page 23

ASHEVILLE CITIZEN-TIMES Sports SECTION Major League Statistics3D Sports A.M.4D WNC Calendar4D Tuesday Oct. 6, 1992 raves, IBmcs begSim Smoltz pitches ieadoff MIL plapffff iremniaU ii iniir-i- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS dugout roof at Three Rivers Stadium NL playoffs will be held Friday. BASEBALL PLAYOFFS NATIONAL LEAGUE Game 1 Tuesday Pittsburgh at Atlanta, 8:39 Game 2 Wednesday Pittsburgh at Atlanta, 3:07 AMERICAN LEAGUE Game 1 Wednesday Oakland at Toronto, 8:26 Game 2 Thursday Oakland at Toronto, 8:37 Angelo Marotto finishes painting the in Pittsburgh, where Game 3 of the NL SERIES Atlanta seeks a second consecutive championship series victory over Pittsburgh. How the National League division winners compare In 1 992 regular season play: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA Stop Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke, and the Atlanta Braves should be able to waltz past the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League playoffs. Not so, says Atlanta righthander John Smoltz.

Smoltz will start Game 1 of the best-of-7 series, INSIDE which begins. 63 Blue Jays, Tuesday night A's set to meet at Atlanta-Ful-agaln. Page 2D ton County Sta-dium. The series repeats that of a year ago in which the Braves advanced to the World Series when Smoltz pitched a six-hit shutout in Game 7. "That would be the obvious, but I think the biggest key is to shut down the players in front of them," Smoltz said Monday.

Bonds hit .311 with 34 home runs and 103 RBIs. Van Slyke hit .324 with 14 homers and 89 RBIs. They hit third and fourth in the Pittsburgh lineup. "I really believe if you keep guys off the bases, when you face Van Slyke and Bonds, they really can't hurt you that bad," said See Smoltz on page 3D MATCHUP average .254 "682 Tom Glavuw In (RBir 641 1,391 i Andy Van Slyke I' fin Batting Huns 656 Runs batted 1,409 Hits Home 110 Stolen Earned run 693 Doubles Triples avg 223 48 044 btriKeouts pitcnea- S48 i SOURCE Associated Press Bodine blisters Allison cuts Elliott's points So the NL's first playoffs rematch since the Dodgers and Phillies met in 1977 and 1978 just might not be an instant replay of the pitching-dominated 1991 series that featured three 1-0 games. This one might be an Oktoberfest of hitting or, maybe, an October slugfest.

"We won't steal this Pendleton, last year's NL MVP, said. "If we don't beat them, they're not going to beat themselves again. If we win it, it will be because we earned it." urn. ii.V'f 1 4. 0 tU, TIIR ASSOCIATED PRESS his car In victory lane.

"That's in the past," Bonds said of the Pirates' '90 am) '91 problems. "We don't live in the past." The Pirates are the first team to win three consecutive NL East titles since Philadelphia (1976-78), but those Phillies never made it to what Pirates GM Ted Simmons calls "the Grand Banana" the World Series. Pittsburgh also doesn't want to be reminded of the past two playoffs, when Bonds had no RBIs in 13 games and the Pirates got zeroed out in the big games. They lost 2-1 on one hit in 1990's decisive Game 6 in Cincinnati and were shut out at home in Games 6 and 7 in '91 after taking a 3-2 series lead in Atlanta. "We're going to be better," the Pirates' Jay Bell said.

"The way we played down the stretch, we're ready for the playoffs. We've played great, solid, consistent, steady baseball the last nine weeks." But the playoffs last just seven games or fewer, not nine weeks, and that's why Braves Manager Bobby Cox is taking one huge gamble by starting right-hander John Smoltz (15-12) in Game 1 against the Pirates' Doug Drabek (15-11). Drabek's 1.16 post-season ERA is See Braves on page 3D Jordan could be sidelined Bender may start at QB Saturday THE ASSOCIATED PRESS RALEIGH North Carolina State's depth at quarterback likely will be tested again this season. Wolfpack senior Terry Jor dan, who suffered a badly sprained ankle at Georgia Tech, is very questionable for the Wolfpack's game against Texas Tech on Saturday. That means the 25th-ranked 1 Wolfpack again Terry Jordan will be in the position of having Geoff Bender as the starter and Terry Harvey the back-up Harvey again just a play away from having to give up a redshirt year.

Wolfpack Coach Dick Sheridan said Monday that Jordan suffered stretched ligaments and muscles in his left ankle. The injury occurred on the opening play of the second half, when Jordan kept the ball on an option play and had his legs pinned under him on a crushing tackle. "It was not broken, which is good news," Sheridan said. "But he has it in a cast and it's hard to know how much damage was done because there is a lot of swelling and bleeding. "It's tough to evaluate and it'll depend on how quickly the swelling goes down.

But I don't see anyway he can play by Saturday." A year ago, Jordan broke his left arm early in the fourth game of the season against North Carolina and did not play again until the Peach Bowl. Jordan had completed 41-of-49 passes over two games for 525 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions, and was named the ACC's offensive player of the week after his remarkable 23-of-25, 361- against the Tar Heels. i 7 iv 5 138 bases 12 (ERA)' 3.14 Knight-Riclder TribuneRON CODD1NOT0N field lead in half the Robert Yates Ford, while Bill Elliott came in 26th. Headed to Charlotte for Sunday's Mello Yello 500, Elliott has a 67-point lead over Allison Alan Kulwicki, Harry Gant, and Martin, round out the top five in the season points battle. In Monday's race, Kyle Petty, Rusty Wallace and Sterling Marlin finished three through five all a lap down.

"I never dreamed Mondays could be like this," said Bodine. "Usually, I'm home all alone. My wife's bowling and my son's in school. I usually don't do much but loaf around, open the mail and things like that. But these past two weeks have been a nice change of pace.

"This is the most unbelievable car I've ever driven. It was hit or miss in practice at Martinsville two weeks ago and we were about to haul it back to the shop and cut it up. Then, we win back-to-back races with it," said Bodine, who joined Elliott and Darrell Waltrip in that category this season. "I can't believe how good this See Bodine on page 2D This time, Pirates hot THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA Barry Bonds has never been Mr. Postseason and the Pittsburgh Pirates are 0-for-Octo-ber since 1990.

The only question about the National League playoffs rematch that begins Tuesday seemingly is which Atlanta Braves' pitcher will be this fall's Zero Hero. Maybe not Sure, the Braves one run short of winning the World Series last year will start John Smoltz, Steve Avery and Tom Glavine against Pittsburgh, which was shut out in its last three home games of the '91 playoffs. But, this year, the Pirates -not the Braves' Big 3 enter the playoffs on a tear, winning 42 of their last 56. The Braves' young gun starters have won just three times among them in a month, the beat-up bullpen is questionable with Alejandro Pena out and Kent Mercker hurting. Mike Stanton is only healthy Braves' left-hander reliever to counter the Pirates' left-handed strength of Bonds and Andy Van Slyke.

-w MlY i i A -J Geoff Bodine celebrates from atop Wake Forest coaches lift Lv Aikman, sacked last year and ago with a separated pocket by Reggie and forced to continued throughout. Two plays over the middle, bootleg for plays later. The Cowboys from Aikman to a 10-7 lead on 1:34 left in the first Then came With Dallas Aikman rolled the ball was Wes Hopkins on TOP 10 FINISHERS 1. Geoff Bodine 2. Mark Martin 3.

Kyle Petty 4. Rusty Wallace 5. Sterling Marlin 6. Ernie Irvan 7. Brett Bodine 8.

Terry Labonte 9. Darrell Waltrlp .10. DaleJarrett free race in Winston Cup's modern era. The last North Wilkesboro race without a yellow flag came during Richard Petty's victory in the Gwyn Staley 400 in 1971. Bodine's win gave Ford six of the eight short-track wins this season and also clinched the first NASCAR manufacturer's championship since 1969 ending Chevrolet's streak of nine in a row (1983-1991).

Although it was virtually a one-car race for the Motorcraft team, Davey Allison cut Bill Elliott's Winston Cup points lead in half with an llth-place finish in By Jim Hamer ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR NORTH WILKESBORO -Geoff Bodine, driving the Bud Moore "dream machine" Ford Thunderbird, blistered the 32-car field to win the rain-delayed Tyson Holly Farms 400 on Monday at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The 45-year-old Bodine lapped all but one car the Ford of runner-up Mark Martin en route to his second straight Winston Cup short track victory. Bodine averaged a record 107.360 mph around the five-eighths-mile banked track, leading 312 of the 400 caution-free laps on four different occasions. It took Bodine only two hours, 19 minutes and 43 seconds to blitz the field. Martin finished a distant 5.4 seconds behind Bodine, who scored his 13th Winston Cup career win.

An estimated crowd of 40,000 and a national cable audience watched the second straight Monday race in the Winston Cup series and the first caution-free, event since the 400-mile race at Michigan in August 1984. It was only the sixth caution- 1 Walker sparks Eagles Philadelphia wins showdown against Cowboys, 31-7 H-Mukl 11 times by the Eagles in Dallas knocked out of a game here two years shoulder, was flushed from the White on the first play of the game ground the ball, setting a pattern that later, John Booty picked off a pass returned it to the 14 and sot up a 2-yard a TD by Randall Cunningham four came back to tie it on a 7-yard pass Kelvin Martin and the Cowboys took Roger Ruzek's 40-yard field goal with quarter. perhaps the crucial turnover. at third-and-goal at the Eagles 2, right, threw toward the end zone and deflected by Thomas into the hands of the goal line. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHILADELPHIA Before Monday night's showdown, Herschel Walker niftily dodged inquiries about his desire for revenge against the Dallas Cowboys for trading him.

Then he went out and niftily dodged the Cowboys, scoring touchdowns on runs of 9 and 16 yards and rushing for 86 yards on 19 carries as he and the Philadelphia defense combined to beat Dallas 31-7 in a battle of the NFC's last two unbeatens. That defense, led by linebackers Seth Joyner, Byron Evans and William Thomas, got four turnovers three interceptions and a fumble recovery that led to three touchdowns and denied the Cowboys another. The Eagles broke away with three touchdowns in the final 20 minutes. It was just another chapter in the sad saga of Dallas quarterback Troy Aikman against the Eagles, who now lead the NFC East at 4-0, whllo the Cowboys fell to 3-1. Vfr YL I ffillllllllllllllMllllll I Eagles' Randall Cunningham (left) scrambles past Ken Norton (51).

See Eagles on page 2D TOMORROW: NL playoffs begin in Atlanta North Carolina, conferences Pisgah's surprising start.