BRAVES BLANK MARLINS : ATLANTA 4, FLORIDA 0.

Byline: Ben Walker Associated Press 

All of a sudden, this great pitching matchup between the Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins looks a little lopsided.

The Braves turned up another ace Saturday night, with Denny Neagle showing why he's one of the best No. 4 starters in baseball history. His four-hitter led Atlanta over Florida 4-0, evening the NL championship series at 2-2.

Neagle topped the NL with 20 wins this year but had made just one relief appearance in the postseason while waiting to take his turn behind Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.

``I think what we saw tonight, basically, was the depth of their pitching staff,'' said Marlins manager Jim Leyland, who managed Neagle for five seasons in Pittsburgh. ``It showed up big time.''

The Marlins' situation is not so bright.

``A severe case of the pitching blues,'' Leyland termed it before the game.

Game 5 today will match Maddux against Kevin Brown, pushed back a day because of a viral infection and replaced by Al Leiter.

Brown left Pro Player Stadium early because of his illness, but Leyland was still hoping he could pitch. If not, it will be up to rookie Livan Hernandez, who already was scheduled to start Game 6 in place of Alex Fernandez, diagnosed Thursday with a torn rotator cuff.

``Other than some viral infections, I think we are fine,'' Leyland said. ``Our pitching rotation has been drastically readjusted, but we are not looking for that.

``We know what we got left - Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz,'' he said. ``We have Brown, Hernandez and (Tony) Saunders. We're OK.''

In his first start since Sept. 28, Neagle was as sharp as ever, striking out seven and walking one in the first NLCS shutout since 1991.

``I had confidence in myself,'' Neagle said. ``I didn't think I was that much rusty tonight. I felt great from the get-go. Obviously, you don't necessarily expect to go throw a four-hit shutout. But I really felt good going in.''

Fred McGriff doubled, singled and drove in two runs, Chipper Jones had three hits and Jeff Blauser homered for Atlanta. The win ensured the best-of-seven series would return to Turner Field.

A day after the Marlins rallied past Smoltz for a 5-2 win, Neagle gave them nothing to hit, permitting just four singles and no one past second base.

The left-hander had the same results as he did in Game 1 Tuesday, when he pitched three scoreless innings in relief, although this came in a much bigger spot.

Featuring his offspeed stuff, Neagle retired the first nine batters - the third straight game an Atlanta starter had accomplished the feat - before Kurt Abbott bunted for a single to begin the fourth.

Neagle's only trouble came in the sixth when pinch-hitter Alex Arias singled with one out and Edgar Renteria singled with two outs. Gary Sheffield took two balls, then two strikes and hit a hard grounder up the middle that overshifted second baseman Tony Graffanino fielded for a forceout.

A quiet crowd of 54,890, a Marlins record attendance for the second straight night, saw Florida go quickly after that. Neagle allowed only an infield single to pinch-hitter John Cangelosi in the eighth in finishing up.

Neagle pitched the first NLCS shutout since Smoltz in Game 7 in 1991, and the first NLCS complete game since Pittsburgh's Tim Wakefield in Game 6 in 1992.

While it took Florida all game to get four hits, the Braves matched that total in the first two innings.

Jeff Blauser walked with one out in the first and Chipper Jones singled. McGriff followed with an RBI single on Leiter's 10th pitch, but the Marlins avoided further trouble when Jones, for the second straight day, made a baserunning blunder by overrunning second and getting trapped.

``Chipper is a great baserunner,'' Braves manager Bobby Cox insisted. ``He's just made a couple of mistakes.''

Leiter worked around two hits in the second, and was nicked for a run in the third on a double by Jones and a two-out single by Andruw Jones, his second hit.

The Marlins were having trouble keeping up with the Joneses with Blauser homered to start the fifth for a 3-0 lead. It was Blauser's first hit against Leiter in 10 career at-bats, including six strikeouts.

Atlanta added another run in the fifth when Chipper Jones singled and scored on McGriff's double off the top of the right-field wall. Cox came onto the field to ask the umpires whether the ball cleared the fence, and replays showed it did not.

The fans booed Leiter after McGriff's hit, and pitching coach Larry Rothschild went to the mound. But with a depleted bullpen, there was not much else the Marlins could do.

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Photo

PHOTO Braves' Fred McGriff belts an RBI double, all the runs Denny Neagle would need.

Associated Press