had been for most of the night, Morris was effective, retiring Jeff Blauser, Smith, and Pendleton in order. Morris threw 126 pitches in the game. Smoltz later said that if he had had the experience Morris had at the time, he might also have tried to argue his way out of being removed from the game when he got in trouble in the 8th, but as a young and fairly inexperienced pitcher, he didn't feel he had the standing to argue with Cox the way Morris did with Kelly. (Though this admission shows Smoltz’s competitive fire, the truth is this would have made no difference in the actual game situation, because Smoltz was removed on the second mound visit of an inning—a circumstance under which a manager is required by the rules to remove the pitcher.) Peña faced Gladden to start the bottom half of the inning, and the Twins' leadoff hitter lifted a fly ball to left field after breaking his bat upon the impact. The ball landed in front of the charging Hunter for a bloop hit, and the ball then took a high bounce that Hunter was unable to field. Center fielder Gant backed up the play and caught the hop, but Gladden dashed to second and beat Gant's throw to the bag. Kelly then called for a sacrifice bunt, and Knoblauch executed to put the winning run on third with one out. As he'd done in the eighth, Cox called for an intentional walk to the resurgent Puckett. Hrbek, who had not gotten a hit in his last 16 at-bats dating back to his single in the eighth inning of Game 3, was next up. Despite Hrbek's .115 Series average (3 hits in the Series, two of which were in Game 1) and lack of speed, and even though the Braves had left-hander Kent Mercker, who had struck Hrbek out in a similar situation earlier in the series, warming up in the bullpen along with right-hander Jim Clancy, Cox decided to call a second consecutive intentional walk, loading the bases to set up a force play at home plate and the possibility of a double play, which would have ended the inning. This left Kelly with a tough decision. Brown, who pinch ran for designated hitter Davis, was due up and he had not recorded a hit in the series. Entering the 10th inning, Kelly had