Steve Avery

Game Too . . . The Atlanta Braves demonstrated that they are too deep, too battle-tested, too confident, too much, too good for the third-year Colorado Rockies. After falling behind in the eighth when a curious pitching change by manager Bobby Cox blew up in his face like an exploding cigar, the Braves calmly scored four times in the ninth last night to win, 7-4, and sweep the first two games of the National League division series. They now return home with three chances to win one more game and clinch a trip to the league championship series.

The Atlanta Braves stormed into the playoffs with the best record in the National League. The Colorado Rockies made it courtesy of the newfangled wild card. The Braves have finished first each of the last four full seasons. The Rockies have existed for three seasons. The Braves will start Greg Maddux, who will win his fourth straight Cy Young Award, and Tom Glavine, the last NL pitcher other than Maddux to take that trophy, in the first two games of the first-ever NL division series that starts tonight at Coors Field.

It took Kevin Elster getting his first major league runs batted in since 1991. It took Sid Fernandez, who hadn't won a game in nearly a year when the Phillies signed him after the All-Star break, unfurling his third consecutive dominant start. It took a delayed flight that forced Andy Van Slyke out of the lineup to get Tony Longmire an unexpected start against lefthander Steve Avery; Longmire drove in the game-winning run with a sacrifice fly against Avery in the sixth. But the Phillies managed to arrange all of the above to knock off the mighty Braves, 4-3, last night at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.

It all could have disintegrated right here. The Phillies, teetering on extinction's edge, might easily have come apart for good in the home of the Braves, land of the three-run homer. But something - perhaps Mariano Duncan's bad-boy collision at home plate, perhaps a recollection of their sweet May sweep here, most likely their manager's stern pregame words - infused the Phillies last night with a passion they had been missing. And on a night when Gregg Jefferies never even tossed a helmet, this reeling team salvaged some pride.

Butch Henry and Mel Rojas did something no National League pitchers had accomplished in nearly a year. The Montreal Expos pitchers shut out host Atlanta, 3-0, the first time the Braves have been blanked since the day before the strike began last Aug. 11. "Any time you can keep a lineup like that from scoring, that's a great feat, I suppose," Henry said. The shutout, which took 1 hour, 56 minutes, left the Boston Red Sox as the only team in the majors that has not been shut out this year.

This week was more annoying than most for Danny Jackson. Trade rumors buzzed around him like so many pesky gnats until, angrily, he cut off all discussion of them. Then all this talk of a strike intruded on his pre-start focus. So in last night's fifth inning, when the first two walks he had permitted in 16 innings helped the Braves break free of a 1-1 tie, Jackson's black eyes bore in on Gary Darling. A little more than 60 feet away, the home-plate umpire must have felt a chill.

Steve Avery hadn't won in almost seven weeks, struggling to seven no- decisions and one loss since his last victory on May 20 at Colorado. The frustration ended yesterday as the lefthander limited the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates to six hits and struck out eight in eight innings as the Atlanta Braves beat the Pirates, 4-2, in the second game of a doubleheader. The eight strikeouts is one fewer than his season high. The Pirates won the first game, 3-1, with two runs in the eighth and a strong outing from Zane Smith (9-6)

Baseball is a very weather-sensitive game and yesterday, for the first time this year, the Phillies played an afternoon game at home on a hot, breezy summer day. The 52,545 witnesses at the Vet saw baseballs take strange skips on the infield rug. They saw baseballs get in the jet stream and sail forever. They saw the Atlanta Braves score eight runs, and lose. The Phils won, 9-8, and are back at .500. For the Braves, starter Steve Avery took the loss. "It was quite a game," said Phillies manager Jim Fregosi.

The Atlanta Braves are the luckiest doggone baseball team on the planet. Here's why: Go back one year. A lefthander from Dublin, Ohio, named Kent Mercker is firmly stuck in the Braves' bullpen - which, considering the Braves' fabulous starting rotation, means that he is stuck in oblivion. Mercker has just a fastball and a slider in his repertoire. The Braves ask him to do a little of everything. Middle relief. Long relief. Setting up the closer. Closing. Spot starting. His statistics will not win the guy any Cy Young Awards: 3-1 won- lost record and a 2.86 ERA in 66 innings over 43 games.

A big question last night was Phillies lefthander David West's physical condition. After all, he was making his first start since he strained his rib cage against the Mets on June 13. The rib cage was fine. It was his strained left groin that forced him out of the game after five innings. West said he felt a tug on a pitch that struck out Pirates starter Jon Lieber in the fifth. "I thought I could finish the inning without making a big scene," West said. "But, after that, it wouldn't have done any good to try to be a hero.