GAME 1: Both teams finished out the regular season vs each other. SF cruised to clinching the NL West during that series, while Atlanta was in a dogfight to keep their grip on one of the two wild cards. Pundits had the Giants heavily favored and one could see why since they sport a HOF caliber lineup. In this game they relied on their HOF pitcher, Juan "dandy" Marichal who allowed the Braves 1 lone run on 4 hits as he cruised to a complete game victory. His opposite number, Tom Glavine, struggled through 7 innings of spotty work. One can't blame Glavine too much since he had to face the toughest righty hitting lineup in the league. 7 of SF's 9 starters, including Marichal, got a hit in this one. Mays' homer in the 8th off of Brad Clontz provided a a huge insurance run.GAME 2:
During game 1's post game interview Marichal was asked if he'd be ready start game 4. Quite possibly there was a language barrier or Marichal just misunderstood the question, but his response, "what 4th game" ? didn't' go over to well in the Atlanta dugout. Tom Glavine, who's game 1 performance wasn't fantastic said in response, "I wasn't devastated with this loss, especially since we have a lot of character in this locker room and we'll rise to the occasion. Game 2 saw the Brave bats come to life and knock Giant starter Billy Pierce out of the box by the 5th inning after yielding 5 runs. The Braves notched 4 runs in the top of the 4th as the Braves had 3 doubles. After 1 out in the bottom of the 7th Brave ace, John Smoltz was forced to leave the game due to an undisclosed arm injury. His status is going to be day to day.
GAME 3: The series headed to Atlanta Fulton County Stadium all knotted at 1 apiece. Game 2 would prove to be a classic pitcher's duel between Jack Sanford and Greg Maddux. Sanford carried a 1 run lead into the 8th when the Braves tied it up when Marquis Grissom received a 2 out walk, stole second and scored on a Mark Lemke singe. Lemke got thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double, but the damage was done. Maddux left the game after 8 innings of work scattering 6 hits and allowing 1 run. The Giants were not able to score in the top of the 9th as they faced 3 Brave hurlers (McMichael, Borbon and Clontz). The bottom of the
9th saw McGriff reach base on a terrible hop error by Cepeda. Chipper Jones, who has not had his power stroke all season, hit a knubber down the 3rd base line and barely beat it out. Klesko followed with a seeing eyed single to load the bases with nobody out. With the infield in Javy Lopez swung from the heels and pulled one down the left field line to McCovey who had no chance to get the speedy Grissom at the plate. Sanford lost a heartbreaker on an unearned run as the Braves took a 2-1 lead in the series and looked to close it out in game 4.
GAME 4: Marichal got the call to pitch in the game he didn't think would occur. The Giants now had their proverbial backs against the wall and the weight of the world was on "Dandy's" shoulders. Atlanta countered with lefty Steve Avery vs the big righty bats of San Fran. The Giants scored 1 run in each of the first 3 innings, but still only had a 3-2 lead thanks to Marichal's wildness. The Crime Dog, Fred McGriff homered in the 5th to tie it at 3, which stood until the top of the 7th when the Giants pinch hit for Marichal with runners on 1st and 2nd. Matty Alou delivered a clutch single to plate secondbaseman Chuck Hiller. Just like that the Giants were up by one. Heading into the bottom of the 8th the Giants were still clinging to their 1 run lead when the floodgates opened up. Terry Pendleton led off with a harmless blooper to right off of reliever Don Larsen. Pinch hitter David Justice slammed a double off the right field wall to score Pendleton all the way from first to tie the score at 5. 
Grissom came to the plate and attempted to lay down a bunt to move Justice over to 3rd. Giant catcher Ed Bailey made an errant throw into left field, which allowed Justice to score. Chipper Jones capped it all off with a huge blast into the visitors bullpen. Mark Wohlers came on to pitch an easy 9th protecting the Braves 3 run lead to notch the save and close out the series. The Giants fantastic regular season came to a screeching halt thanks to a suspect bullpen and some poor fielding. Manager David Moss handled it with class and dignity in his post game interview. He wished Atlanta good luck the rest of the way and reflected back on his team's shortcoming in the bullpen. The Braves will head to the LCS to face the winner of the Pirate/Dodger series.
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