ATLANTA – Union general William Tecumseh Sherman can rest easier today. He is no longer the most hated man in the history of Atlanta, despite burning the place down during the Civil War.
For at least the next few hours, if not weeks and months, Sherman will take a back seat to Atlanta Braves second baseman Brooks Conrad, whose three errors were the overriding reason the Braves suffered a 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants in their National League Divisional Series contest on Sunday.
Now down 2-1 in the best-of-five series, Atlanta must hope Derek Lowe can pitch his team to victory tonight to force a fifth and deciding game back in San Francisco on Wednesday.
Until or unless that happens, the entirety of Braves Nation will almost certainly have recurring nightmares of Conrad watching what should have been the final out of a 2-2 tie game roll beneath his legs in the top of the ninth.
“We had this one won,” said retiring Atlanta skipper Bobby Cox, struggling to hide his anger. “You know, we’re not the best team in baseball, OK, but we can win games and we can compete against anybody. But we can’t afford to make mistakes.”
The Braves made three mistakes, all by Conrad. The Giants made none.
But when Eric Hinske came off the Braves bench to drill a two-run laser just over the wall in the right corner and put the home team up 2-1, Atlanta appeared to have overcome Conrad’s first two miscues, one of which had led to the Giants’ only run to that point.
But there was still the ninth to play, and as Hinske would say later, “The toughest thing to do in baseball is to get three outs in the ninth. That’s why closers make all that money.”
Only the Braves don’t have a closer. Not any more. Billy Wagner, all set to join Cox in retirement at the close of the Braves’ playoffs, strained an oblique muscle in his left side on Friday night and is on the shelf for at least two weeks.
So Atlanta has now truly become a bullpen by committee, which Cox proved by trotting out four total pitchers in the inning – Craig Kimbrel, Mike Dunn, Peter Moylan and Kyle Farnsworth.
But it was after Kimbrel got the first two outs that it all unraveled. Subbing Dunn for Kimbrel with two outs and two on because the lefty Dunn would face Aubrey Huff, the plan was foiled when Huff singled to right to drive home Travis Ishikawa and tie the game at 2.
But it was what happened next that Braves fans will no doubt place along Jim Leyritz’s homer for the Yankees in the fourth game of the 1996 World Series as the worst punch to the gut in Bravo history.
Subbing Peter Moylan for Dunn, Cox watched Georgia native Buster Posey send a bullet in the general direction of Conrad, who squared to field it.
The ball zipped between his legs – “It just seemed to go right through me,” he said softly – scoring Freddy Sanchez.
The 2-1 lead was now a 3-2 deficit. The Braves went fairly meekly in the ninth. The fairytale finish from Friday night in San Fran now seemed as distant as 8-track tapes and pet rocks.
“Biggest swing of emotions in my life,” said Braves hitter Matt Diaz. “Never gone that quickly from a happy feeling to a bad feeling.”
Added starting pitcher Tim Hudson, who surrendered no earned runs in seven innings, “It’s tough to see [Conrad] struggle. He’s been a key player for us all year. But it’s heartbreaking.”
A sellout crowd of 52,284 couldn’t have agreed more. It was as if someone had thrown a muzzle over Turner Field not five seconds after the entire Big Peach was belting out the Tomahawk Chant and screaming, “Let’s go Braves. Let’s go Braves!”
You can say it’s not fair. You can point to the seven home runs he’s hit this season in the seventh inning or later, four of those coming when his team was behind.
But he has also coughed up at least six errors in the past two weeks.
“I wish I could just dig a big ol’ hole and go to sleep in it,” said Conrad, who manfully faced the media. “For some reason, it’s just been tough lately.”
Tough is coming back tonight and fighting your way through this funk to force a fifth and deciding game.
To that end, someone asked Cox if Conrad would take the field this evening.
“I’ll have to sleep on it,” he said.
Just don’t look for him to snuggle up next to Conrad in that big, ol’ hole.