NO CLOWNING AROUND

McDowell has flipped switch for Braves staff

Atlanta Braves pitching coach Roger McDowell doesn’t have time for hot- foot pranks anymore, but now if a piece of food drops in his vicinity, be prepared. The man will eat it. It can fall on the ground, on your arm or even on your shoe. McDowell will inhale it like a human vacuum.

“He’ll actually lick it off,” Braves starter Mike Minor says, “no matter where it is and what it is.”

McDowell will then go about his business, as if he did nothing more dastardly than steal one of your french fries.

McDowell, the clown prince of baseball during his 12- year major league career — lighting teammates’ shoes on fire when they least expected it — is the mastermind of the pitching staff. The Braves, with a whopping 13- game lead, are on the brink of their first National League East title since 2005.

“We wouldn’t be in this position without Roger,” All- Star catcher Brian McCann says. “He’s been huge for us. And I can’t even begin to tell you what he means to me.

“I’ve learned everything I know about the game because of him.”

The Braves were designed around their offense this year. But with $ 75 million free agent center fielder B. J. Upton hitting .182 and second baseman Dan Uggla struggling so badly (. 186) that he just had Lasik eye surgery, they’ve had no choice but to rely on their pitching staff.

It’s hardly the staff from their glory days with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, let alone even at the season’s outset. Veteran ace Tim Hudson is gone for the year, and Brandon Beachy, the heir apparent, likely will be joining him. Invaluable setup relievers Jonny Venters and Eric O’Flaherty lasted a total of 18 innings before having Tommy John elbow surgeries.

The current rotation consists of names only their families know: Paul Maholm, Kris Medlen, Mike Minor, Julio Teheran and Alex Wood.

They make a grand total of $ 10.57 million — with Maholm earning most of it at $ 6.5 million.

Yet despite having the most inexperienced and cheapest rotation of any contender in baseball, the Braves have the major league’s second- best ERA ( 3.22) while issuing the fewest walks of any team.

“They don’t have an ace, and they don’t have a strikeout pitcher in that rotation,” former Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone says, “but, boy, can they pitch. You look at what Roger has done with that rotation, and it’s just remarkable.”

Outside of Maholm, the Braves don’t have a pitcher with a full season as a starter, but McDowell has them thinking they’re Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Minor, in his first full season last year, questioned whether he belonged. He yielded a 5.97 ERA in the first half, allowing 40 walks and a staggering 19 homers in 92 innings. McDowell came in with a computer printout from the greatest 10 lefthanders in the game and showed Minor they struggled at the outset of their careers, too.

Minor not only recovered to yield a 2.16 ERA in the second half last season, but he leads the team with a 13- 5 record and 2.99 ERA this year.

“He makes you believe in things you didn’t think you were capable of doing,” Minor says, “just his demeanor, the way he explains things.”

Bobby Cox, the former Braves manager and likely future Hall of Famer, calls McDowell not only one of his greatest hires but one of the finest the organization ever made. He was the one who replaced Mazzone, the iconic pitching coach in Atlanta, who left for the Baltimore Orioles.

“There was pressure for sure,” McDowell says. “When I first got here, I’d hear, ‘ Well, Leo wouldn’t have done this. Leo wouldn’t have done that.’ But I felt comfortable in my beliefs.”

While Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton raves about McDowell’s “disarming demeanor,” Dave Wallace, the Braves’ minor league pitching coordinator, talks about his ingenuity and passion for pitching. Wallace, the former Los Angeles Dodgers assistant general manager, persuaded McDowell to join the Dodgers as a minor league pitching coach in 2002, starting with low- Class A South Georgia ( Albany).

“He was the one who told me that he wanted to start at the lowest level,” Wallace said. “He told me, ‘ I want to do this the right way. I want to start from the bottom up.’ That showed me how serious he was.

“This guy’s intelligence is off the charts, and he knows how to present that information to the pitchers.”

The Braves coaches used to keep a secret chart on the number of times McDowell would visit the mound and kept score on what transpired after his visit. It got too boring, so they stopped.

The pitchers recorded an out at least 98% of the time immediately after McDowell’s visit, bench coach Carlos Tosca says.

“Roger is not an attention- seeker. In fact, he shies away from the limelight,” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez says.

You can no longer find McDowell wearing a sombrero before a game as he did one time with the Dodgers or a graduation cap during batting practice with the New York Mets.

He doesn’t even wear “The Upside Down Man” costume anymore, with pants that fit his torso and a jersey that wrapped around his legs.

“Hey,” McDowell says, laughing, “I’m all grown up now.”

Just in time to become the life of the postseason celebration party.

KEVIN LILES, USA TODAY SPORTS Right- hander Kris Medlen makes up one- fifth of a Braves rotation that scares few by name but has shut down many by performance.