NATIONAL LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Glavine Doesn’t Succeed in First, but He and Braves Try Again, Win

There are no signs that the pressure of a tight pennant race is having any effect on the young Atlanta Braves.

Anyone who didn’t know better would think the Braves are a veteran team conditioned to playing their best in the stretch. They simply don’t play like a team that finished last in the National League West a year ago.

With their best pitcher, Tom Glavine, on the mound Sunday at New York, they were stunned when the Mets scored four times in the first inning.

There was no panic. The Braves calmly came back to tie the score by the eighth inning and went ahead in the ninth to win, 7-5, and remain a half-game behind the Dodgers.

Terry Pendleton, one of the few Braves who have been in pennant races, singled home the tying run in the eighth. Rookie Brian Hunter led off the ninth with a home run and Atlanta scored two more runs, with Pendleton getting another run-scoring hit.

Glavine (18-9), who gave up five hits in the first inning, became the first pitcher in the league to win 18 games. He gave up only two more hits in the last seven innings.

“It feels as good as any 1-0 win I’ve ever had,” Glavine said. “Even in the first inning I made some decent pitches. But there were some seeing-eye bloopers and a couple of broken-bat hits.”

When he got back to the dugout after the first inning, Glavine, whose major league-leading ERA went up to 2.32, cursed himself and kicked a few things to let off some steam.

“I was mad,” he said. “More frustrated than anything. If they’re hitting you hard, you have to make adjustments. But in an inning like that, you just have to trust yourself.”

Alejandro Pena, a recent addition who also has pennant race experience, came in to get the save after Mike Stanton walked the first two Mets in the bottom of the ninth.

“We’ve bounced back all year,” Manager Bobby Cox said. “We’re dangerous. Sometimes we bounce back and don’t win, but we always bounce back.”

Otis Nixon’s sacrifice fly gave the Braves their first run and David Justice cut the Mets’ lead to 4-3 with a two-run homer in the sixth.

San Francisco 4, Chicago 3--The slumping Giants appeared on the way to their seventh consecutive defeat. After six innings Greg Maddux had a 3-0 lead and a one-hitter at Chicago.

But after three consecutive Giant singles in the seventh, Kevin Bass tripled and scored the go-ahead run on a squeeze bunt by pinch-hitter Mike Felder.

Felder batted for Trevor Wilson (10-9), who gave up seven hits in six innings and departed believing he had lost his 10th.

The Cubs’ Shawon Dunston, who can become a free agent at the end of the season, hit his 11th home run.

Philadelphia 5, Houston 0--Terry Mulholland pitched a three-hitter at Houston for his sixth complete game.

Mulholland (14-11) retired the last 14 Astros to hand them their 14th shutout.