The NL East Story

Heading into the final week the Braves needed just a split to clinch first place in the NL East.  Ron Burnette's crew did more than just split, they won 3 of 4 vs the 2nd place Pirates and locked down 1st place and home field advantage throughout the playoffs.  The Pirates stole the series opener 7-6 thanks to a come from behind 4 run rally in the bottom of the 8th.  Bill Mazeroski's 3 run blast with 2 outs off of Steve Bedrosian was the difference maker.  Braves manager Burnette said, "He must think it's 1960", when asked what he thought of Maz's performance.  The Braves took the 2nd game with a Smoltzie tossing 7 shutout innings and the pen doing the rest.  Bob Veale gave up just 2 in a complete game effort, but wound up the hard luck loser.  Atlanta scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 9th off of reliever Pete Mikkelsen, who blew his first save of the year thanks to a 3 run shot by the "Crime Dog" Fred McGriff.  That blast clinched the division for the Braves.  A 3-1 victory in the finale mattered to none, but did spoil Don Cardwell's no hit bid.  The Bucs hurler went 7 innings and gave up just 1 hit.  Roy Face gave up back to back homers in the 8th to Terry Pendleton and Ron Gant to break the scoreless tie and send the Braves (26-12) into the post season as the prohibitive favorites.  Pittsburgh earns the #1 Wild Card slot and will face the Dodgers, who won the NL West in the LDS.  Atlanta will face the upstart Astros.

The surprising 1970 Cardinals headed into the final very much alive in their quest for a playoff birth.  After rallying back from a 5-2 deficit with 4 runs in the 7th to win 6-5 in the opener, things looked real good.  The Phillies, who were playing only for pride stuck it to the Redbirds with 3 consecutive blow out wins.  St. Louis came up 1 game short of the wild card and the Phightin's under interim manager Ken Alshanski rallied to finish at an even .500 on the season.  Ken did a wonderful job piloting the Phillies down the stretch after Frank Selders had to leave the league due to medical reasons.  Chase Utley, who went 2 for 3 in the finale finished the season at an even .300 to lead Philly in hitting.  St. Louis just ran out of time and pitching.  A disappointing (.253) campaign from sparkplug Lou Brock didn't help the cause either.  Julian Javier hit .353 out of the #2 hole in the lineup.

In a battle to avoid the cellar the Amazin's found a way to drop 3 of 4 to the normally "hapless" Cubbies to finish at 13-25 and full ownership of the bottom floor.  New York won the opening game of the series, then proceeded to drop the next 3.  Frank Viola (1-7, 4.80) was simply awful all year and did not look much like a 20 game winner.  Doc Gooden (5-3, 3.23) won more than a third of New York's games.  Chicago suffered from a lack of offensive firepower all year from the 1959 NL MVP Ernie Banks who hit just .238 with only 7 homers.  Veteran Alvin Dark led the team in hitting with a .291 clip.  Both teams earned their spot down under.