There’s No Sweep, but It’s No Time to Weep

SAN DIEGO —  A solo home run by Javier Lopez started it, and a grand slam by Andres Galarraga finished it. A six-run, seventh-inning awakening by the Atlanta Braves on Sunday silenced the crowd’s chant of “sweep,” led to an 8-3 victory over the San Diego Padres and produced an anticipated theme in the San Diego clubhouse.

“It would have been nice to sweep, but I don’t think anyone predicted a sweep,” said speaker of the house Jim Leyritz. “We’re still up 3-1, we’re still in the catbird seat, and we’ve already beaten John Smoltz once.”

The Padres didn’t really beat Smoltz in Game 1. They merely didn’t lose to him. They won the game, 3-2, in 10 innings.

Now, with the Braves staying alive Sunday, there’s a rematch between Smoltz and Andy Ashby today (5 p.m., Ch. 11), a last chance for the Padres to close out the National League’s best-of-seven championship series at Qualcomm Stadium and prevent a return to Atlanta for Game 6 Wednesday night.

“It would be nice to do it at home, to share it with these fans [65,042 attended Sunday], but I don’t sense any urgency or panic,” said Joey Hamilton, Sunday’s starter. “We’re up 3-1, they still have a long hill to climb, and with Ash [today] and Kevin Brown in the next game, I have to like our chances.”

Hamilton had made two relief appearances in the division series against Houston but had not started since the last game of the regular season.

He was up 3-2 when Lopez opened that seventh inning by lining an opposite field homer to right. The starter left after Andruw Jones’ ensuing infield single and was still shaking his head about the Lopez homer standing at his locker.

“It was a bad pitch,” Hamilton said. “In fact, it was so bad I don’t know how he hit it.

“I wanted it down and away and it was right at his neck. All I can do is tip my cap and move on.”

Lopez tied it, and Galarraga, one for 12 at the time, put it away with his slam off Dan Miceli.

Hamilton may have wondered how Lopez hit that neck high fastball, but no one was wondering how Galarraga did it.

“It was a pitch he was supposed to hit out,” pitching coach Dave Stewart said of the Miceli fastball. “Belt high over the middle of the plate. Dan sometimes gets excited and misses his location. There were not too many places that pitch was going to end up except over the fence.”

The Braves, who scored more than 40% of their runs via home runs during the regular season, had left the bases loaded three times in Game 3, but the slam in this one was fatal--two infield hits, a wild pitch, a bobble by left fielder Ruben Rivera on a hit that he otherwise would have probably thrown the go-ahead runner out at the plate helped set it up for Galarraga and spoiled the possibility of a sweep.

“You could feel the air go out of it with Galarraga’s homer, but we scrapped like dogs to get a 3-0 lead (in games) and we’re not going to panic just because we lost one,” said Tony Gwynn.

“It comes down to execution. We just have to come back and go about our business. Hopefully, [the slam] doesn’t get them rolling.”

Hopefully for the Padres, they can keep Leyritz rolling. He singled in a run in the third and homered in the sixth for a 3-2 lead. It was his fourth homer of the postseason, the seventh of his career.

It temporarily appeared that it might be decisive.

“Emotionally, from the fans standpoint, they may have thought it was over,” Leyritz said, “but the players knew we had three more innings to play. It was nice, it felt good at the time, but they play nine innings for a reason.”

The Braves get to play nine more tonight.