PHOENIX -- Standing in front of his locker after Monday afternoon's team workout, Mark Grace made a simple gesture. Extending his left hand to a nearby group of reporters, Grace took his thumb and index finger and drew them three inches apart, as if he were about to smash a small bug between the two phalanges.

But there was no such creature. Grace was showing the distance that his line shot down the right-field line in the eighth inning Sunday landed foul.

	The Big Unit will try to end his seven-game postseason losing streak in Game 1.

And that miniscule distance was the difference between a two-run double and what instead became an inning-ending strikeout. If not for Tony Womack's heroics an inning later, it could have been the difference between a win and a loss, a trip to the NLCS or a trip to the golf course.

Yes, welcome to postseason baseball. Where, if you're the Arizona Diamondbacks, 10 runs in five games are enough to get you to the next round. Where if you're the Atlanta Braves, season-long offensive struggles don't mean a thing when you can potentially throw Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Burkett six times in a seven-game series.

In a baseball era where the single-season home run record is broken every three years and purists argue the pitching is watered down, postseason baseball often comes down to pitching and defense. Which leads to one question: When the NLCS opens up Tuesday between the Diamondbacks and Braves, how is anyone going to score?

Look no further than Game 1, with Randy Johnson set to oppose Maddux, to start wondering how anyone is going to make it across the plate.

	Johnson vs. Braves
	How Randy Johnson fared against the Braves this season:
	Date	IP	H	R	SO	Dec.
	4/28/01	8	6	3	12	L

"I don't know," Grace said. "Most of the playoffs are dominated by pitching, with each team having three or four dominant starters. Most of the scores are somewhere around the one, two or three runs. And I can tell you, this one will be no different."

Against the likes of Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Darryl Kile and Bud Smith, the Diamondbacks scored just 10 runs. Five of those came in Game 3. They hit just .237 in the five-game series.

With such struggles at the plate, it wasn't a great surprise that manager Bob Brenly called on a suicide squeeze in the bottom of the ninth to try and score the series-winning run. Though the plot failed, the fact that the dangerous maneuver was even considered gives testament to the premium placed on any run.

"This has been a postseason where any game can turn on one pitch," Grace said. "With a seven-game series now, there might be a little more leeway, but not much. Every pitch, every at-bat is big and important."

	Maddux vs. D-Backs
	How Greg Maddux fared against the D-Backs this season:
	Date	IP	H	R	SO	Dec.
	4/26/01	5.2	9	7	3	L
	8/12/01	6	12	6	7	L

In their three-game sweep of the Astros, the Braves' offense proved much more potent than that of the Diamondbacks, scoring 14 runs and hitting .303. But two of those games were played in run-friendly Enron Field. And the Houston staff the Braves faced is a far cry from the Schilling-Johnson buzz saw they'll run into in this series.

Perhaps none of the potential pitching matchups is more intriguing than the Game 1 battle of Johnson, the monstrous, intimidating, 6-foot-10 inch flamethrower, against Maddux, the mental magician with pinpoint control.

Maddux, coming off a six-inning, four-hit, three-run performance in Game 1 against the Astros, had a good year, going 17-11, 3.05. But he was a Cy Young candidate when he was 17-7, 2.86 in late August. He didn't win any of final seven regular-season starts or his one playoff starts. He is 10-11 lifetime in the postseason with a 2.78 ERA. Johnson, on the other hand, has lost seven consecutive postseason decisions, including his eight-inning, six-hit, three-run loss against the Cardinals in Game 2 of the Division Series.

But don't let those postseason numbers fool you. Maddux has pitched well, as witnessed by his sub-3.00 ERA. And like Maddux, Johnson has pitched well enough in the majority of those seven losses to have won. Still, the postseason losses of both pitchers have many, including Braves manager Bobby Cox, baffled.

"I can't answer (Maddux's struggles) anymore than I could answer Randy Johnson not winning every game in the playoffs that he pitches," Cox said. "I expect Maddux to do the same thing."

The biggest difference, Maddux says, is an improvement in the competition in the postseason.

"You don't get to face the last-place teams," Maddux said. "And it's harder to beat good teams than bad teams. You don't get away with mistakes in the postseason that you get away with in the regular season."

Johnson has been heavily criticized for his postseason losses. Even last week, when he threw well enough to win but was outpitched by Woody Williams, he was criticized. While Brenly says the negative talk irks his star, Johnson himself sees it as a positive.

"It's a nice situation to be in, if you really think about it," Johnson said. "I mean, it's nice that people would count on you or expect something from you when you go out there as opposed to, 'What are we going to get from him today?' I would much rather have those expectations put on me. I go out there and count on pitching a good game."

Johnson and Maddux have faced each other once before, in September of 1998, when Johnson pitched for the Astros. The Astros won that game 4-1, behind Johnson's eight innings, four hits and 10 strikeouts. Maddux threw seven innings of 10-hit ball in that game, surrendering four earned runs on three homers.

The specifics of that contest escaped the minds of both pitcher's during Monday's workout.

"I don't know my statistics," Johnson said.

"I was trying to think of what happened," Maddux said. "Who won? I don't even remember. Did he get me or did I get him? All I remember is hitting off him, thinking that if he wanted to slap me on the side of the head when he let go of the ball, he could."

And as if dominant starters weren't enough to keep the scoring down, the Braves come to town with what a bullpen that Cox considers the best he's had in his 11-year tenure in Atlanta. The crew has been bolstered by the transformation of John Smoltz to the closer's role, as well as the addition of Steve Karsay and Steve Reed via trade.

Smoltz, a career 12-4 pitcher in the postseason, had two saves in the NLDS. After moving to the bullpen in July, he went 1-1 with a 1.59 ERA, while converting 12 of 13 save attempts.

"I'd much rather have him throw in my games than after one of my games," Maddux said. "He's a very gifted pitcher who not only has way above stuff, but knows how to pitch a little bit. And you put that together and it's something special to watch."

If you like pitching, that is. Which in this series, there should be plenty to go around.

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com.