So this season of surprises will end with the biggest one yet: the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins in the most unlikely World Series ever.
The Braves, those longtime losers, made winning look easy Thursday night. John Smoltz pitched Atlanta to its first pennant, beating Pittsburgh 4-0 in Game 7 of the NL playoffs.Now the Braves, baseball's poorest team last year, and the Twins, the only other team this century to go from worst-to-first, meet in the World Series beginning Saturday night in the Metrodome. Jack Morris will pitch for Minnesota, while Braves manager Bobby Cox isn't sure on his starter.
"This club came a long way from spring training," Atlanta's Terry Pendleton said. "People said we were out of it at the All-Star break, but we kept battling. They said we couldn't catch the Dodgers and we kept battling. This is a team that won't give up."
Pittsburgh didn't give up, either. It just looked that way on the field and in the stands, where there were almost 10,000 empty seats.
Pittsburgh did not score in its last 22 innings and was shut out for the third time in the series. As in last year's six-game playoff loss to Cincinnati, the heart of the order - Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Andy Van Slyke - stopped beating.
The Pirates' big three finished 15-for-75 with just three RBIs, none after the third inning of Game 1. They also were 1-for-33 with runners on base until Bonilla singled in the eighth. Last year, the middle of the lineup was only 12-for-63 with five RBIs against the Reds.
"They stuck it to us," Van Slyke said. "There isn't one person in the stadium that would've told you in spring training that they'd win their division, let alone Game 7 here."
Not even the Braves would've believed it. They had finished last for three straight years, averaging 100 losses per season.
"I don't know if anybody knows how it feels to lose consistently," Smoltz said. "I know it feels great to win."
A day after playoff MVP Steve Avery and Alejandro Pena shut out Pittsburgh 1-0, Smoltz won his second game in six days. He pitched a six-hitter for his first shutout of the year, striking out eight and walking one.
The Pirates blew a 3-2 series edge and did not score in their last 27 innings at home.
"You wish for shutouts, but that's awfully hard to do," Cox said.
Atlanta won two of three 1-0 games in the series. This time, though, the Braves didn't need a shutout to win.
Brian Hunter's two-run homer capped a three-run first inning, and that was plenty for Smoltz and the Braves. In reversing their history, the Braves also stopped the Pirates' series of Game 7 successes - Pittsburgh had played five previous deciding seventh games and won them all.
"I'm glad this is over," Smoltz said. "I was a little nervous at the start."
It really was over early. After the Braves knocked out 20-game winner John Smiley in the first inning, the Pirates had their best chance when Orlando Merced and Jay Bell led off the first with singles. But the big three of Van Slyke, Bonilla and Bonds each made outs, failing for the umpteenth time.
In the ninth, with 500 Braves fans chanting and chopping in the far reaches of the upper deck, Smoltz finished it quickly with a 1-2-3 inning. That set off an exhuberant celebration on the field, and triggered an ever wilder scene in the clubhouse.
For the Pirates, the loss marked another disappointment. Pittsburgh was baseball's best team during the regular season at 98-64, and came into the playoffs calm and confident. The Pirates won the opener, took two of three in Atlanta and returned to Three Rivers Stadium this week needing only one win to reach the World Series for the first time since 1979.
Not only did they not get one win, they didn't get one run.
"I think we showed we can throw the ball a little bit out there," Avery said.
The Braves won the fifth pennant in franchise history, and first since 1958 in Milwaukee. Atlanta had been swept in its only other playoff appearances, in 1969 and 1982.
Owner Ted Turner, who bought the team in 1976, was beaming when he accepted the NL championship trophy. "I had hoped for this sooner, but better late than never," he said.
The Pirates went meekly, and so did their fans. A crowd of just 46,932, more than 10,000 fewer than watched Game 1, saw the season end.
"You have to tip your hat to the Atlanta Braves," Pirates manager Jim Leyland said. "What a great performance. What a great story for baseball."
Hunter, a rookie, drove in three runs. He hit a two-run homer after Ron Gant's sacrifice fly in the first inning, and added an RBI double in the fifth.
Smoltz, in danger of losing his spot in the rotation in midseason when he was 2-11, won for the 14th time in 16 decisions since the All-Star break. His only trouble after the first inning came in the eighth, when Bell singled with one out and Bonilla singled with two down. But Smoltz got Bonds on a routine fly.
Smiley also was a failure. He gave up four runs in the first inning in losing Game 3 to Smoltz, and seemed nervous Wednesday night about pitching Game 7.
That's the way it went, too, as he walked Lonnie Smith to start the game and gave up Pendleton's single. After Gant's sacrifice fly to the wall, Smiley struck out David Justice, but got tagged on Hunter's drive into the left-field seats, just inside the line.
When Greg Olson followed with a single, Smiley was out, and, for all intents, so were the Pirates.
"I had a decent season," Smiley said, "but I let my team down, and it's going to take a long time to get over it."