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Game 5: Thursday, October 24, 1991 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia
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| Box Score Info. - (read me) | |
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In Game 5, it was Glavine vs. Tapani in a Game 2 rematch. And despite the final score, this contest was still close until after the seventh inning stretch. For three innings, the pitchers matched zeroes, but in the fourth, Gant singled to left and Justice homered off the top of the left-field wall for a 2–0 Braves lead. Bream followed up with a walk, and Olson then hit what appeared to be a double play grounder to second. But the ball hit Bream's leg, resulting in Bream being called out for runner interference but Olson being safe at first. Lemke, the hero of Games 3 and 4, drilled a triple that scored Olson, and Lemke himself then scored on light-hitting Rafael Belliard's double. At this point, the Braves led 4–0, their biggest lead in any game in the Series. In the fifth, Pendleton and Gant singled, with Pendleton moving to third. Then Justice hit into a fielder's choice that scored Pendleton and gave the Braves a 5–0 lead. With Glavine working on a two-hitter, the game seemed in hand for the Braves. But Glavine was not sharp in the sixth inning and wound up getting pulled from the game. Knoblauch reached on a one-out walk and then went to third on Puckett's single. A walk to Davis loaded the bases, and Glavine suddenly had difficulty pitching into the strike zone. He walked in two runs by giving bases-loaded walks to Harper and Leius. Kent Mercker came on to get out of the jam and he got the final two outs with only one additional run scoring. The game entered the seventh with the Braves leading, 5–3. Tom Kelly sent David West out to begin the bottom of the seventh. West had failed to retire a batter in Game 3, facing two batters and giving up two walks. (While one of these walks did force a run home, this run was an unearned run charged to starter Scott Erickson.) Smith hit his third home run in three nights, all solo shots, to give the Braves a 6–3 lead. And then the floodgates opened. Pendleton and Gant walked, Justice singled to score Pendleton, and West was again taken out without retiring a batter, giving him four earned runs without retiring a batter for an ERA of infinity. (West would retire his first World Series hitter in the 1993 World Series with the Philadelphia Phillies). Hunter singled to score Gant and put two on with nobody out and an 8–3 Braves lead. After Olson popped out, Lemke hit his third triple in his last four at bats, driving home Justice and Hunter, and scoring when Belliard singled to center. The Braves ended the seventh with an 11–3 lead and the announcers began talking about the chances of the two teams in Game 6. However, there were still two innings to be played. Davis, playing this game in right field in place of Mack, who was 0-for-15, singled. He moved to second on a ground out and scored on Al Newman's triple. In the bottom of the eighth, Pendleton doubled and Gant tripled, scoring Pendleton. Justice grounded out to the pitcher, scoring Gant, and Hunter then ended the Braves' offensive barrage with a home run. Both managers emptied their benches to give playing time to non-starters. Randy St. Claire gave up a run when Gladden tripled (the fifth triple of the game between the two teams) and scored on a fielder's choice, but the game ended in a 14–5 Braves rout, the only lopsided game in the Series. The Braves scored just under half of total runs for the series in these eight innings. The Braves now had their first lead in Series games, three to two, and only needed one win to clinch their first World Series since 1957. In fact, the marquee wall at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium read "Three at home and one at the Dome." The Washington/Minnesota franchise had now lost fourteen straight World Series road games dating back to 1925, a streak that remains active as the Twins have not advanced to a World Series since 1991. |