Atlanta Answer Is Grand, Leaving Dodgers Slammed : Baseball: Braves show skeptics, taking 1 1/2-game lead in NL West when Bream’s bases-loaded homer keys 9-1 victory.

The last thing the Dodgers saw before leaving the field this weekend was the Atlanta Braves’ Steve Avery, full of youth and excitement, throwing his cap into the crowd.

They remembered when their own young pitcher, Ramon Martinez, did things like that. They remembered when he had the strength to do things like that.

He is only two years older than Avery, but Sunday Martinez looked old enough to be his father.

While Avery was giving up four hits in a complete game, Martinez was yielding seven runs in two innings during the Dodgers’ 9-1 loss before 45,541 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

Upon completing a series that was supposed to provide answers about the National League West championship race, the Dodgers were left only with lingering, painful questions.

What is wrong with Martinez? And, with 18 games remaining, can they overcome a 1 1/2-game deficit to Atlanta, their biggest deficit since May 7?

The second question becomes more complicated when one considers that, because of the first question, the Dodger pitching rotation is cracking at its foundation.

Tim Belcher has a pulled groin muscle. Bob Ojeda is struggling with a rib injury that is worse than he will admit. Orel Hershiser, recovering from shoulder surgery, acknowledges that he is still an uncertainty every time he takes the mound.

And now there’s Martinez, 23, was the loser in two of the Dodgers’ four defeats on the 11-game trip.

Said Brett Butler: “I don’t know if he’s tired or hurt.”

Said Gary Carter: “The indications are that he is tired. But the fact that he has not missed a start since being smoked in the biceps (with a line drive on Aug. 20), that may have something do with it, too.”

Whatever the reason, it has been nearly three years since Martinez has pitched as poorly as Sunday. And he was barely worse than he was last Tuesday in Cincinnati.

Two-plus innings, seven runs (five earned), four hits, three walks, one hit batsman and a grand slam by Sid Bream.

To make things worse, the grand slam came on a fastball after Carter had called for a change-up.

“He didn’t shake me off. He just threw a fastball,” said Carter. “After the inning I went up to him in the dugout and asked him if he saw that I had called for a change-up.

“He just looked at me like, obviously not.”

But reading signs is the least of Martinez’ problems. Since Aug. 5, he is 2-6 with a 6.38 earned-run average.

Before then, he pitched consecutive complete games, giving him a team-leading six. In nine starts since then, he has pitched past the seventh inning once.

“One thing about Ramon, even though he sometimes has problems with his breaking ball and his changeup, he never has problems with his fastball. . . until today,” Butler said. “It used to always be crisp. But not today.”

Martinez particularly has hurt the Dodgers on the trip, during which he has given up 10 earned runs in 5 2/3 innings.

“If I was tired, I would say that I was tired, but I am fine,” he said. “I am not hurt. Nothing hurts. I have just had a couple of bad days. But I will come out of it.”

This second consecutive loss to the Braves will be a bad memory for other reasons. The Dodgers committed three errors, their most in more than two months. A fly ball that nicked off second baseman Juan Samuel’s glove and was ruled a hit led to the first-inning grand slam.

Until the ninth inning, the offense managed only a soft single to left field by Butler and an infield single to shortstop by Mitch Webster.

Remember Darryl Strawberry? He did not take batting practice, then went hitless in two at-bats, finishing the series hitless in seven at-bats after getting four hits Friday.

By the seventh inning, Tom Lasorda, Dodger manager, had emptied his bench. But he claimed the Dodgers were still on their feet.

“They threw the first punch and got us good, but we have not lost the fight,” Lasorda said. “We have just lost the round.”

What gives the Dodgers hope is their travel arrangements. They flew to Los Angeles after the game to finish the season in California, with 13 of their final 18 games at Dodger Stadium. Of the remaining five games, three are in San Francisco and two are in San Diego.

The Braves flew to San Francisco, and they will finish their season with 13 of their final 19 games on the road. That includes next weekend’s three-game showdown at Dodger Stadium.

“This thing will be won or lost for them on the road and won or lost for us at home,” Butler said. “So I like our chances better.”

The Braves don’t quite see it that way.

“We’re going to have to lose this thing now,” said Avery, 21, a left- hander who is 4-0 with a 1.23 earned-run-average against the Dodgers.

Avery has pitched like a veteran in this championship race, winning three consecutive decisions to improve to 16-8. He said the Braves matured as the weekend progressed, accounting for the two victories after a lackluster defeat Friday.

“We were pressing Friday night. A lot of us haven’t experienced this before,” he said. “We were trying to win all three games at once. But then we got the big win Saturday, and today was the most relaxed we’ve been.”

It was easy to relax Sunday after Mark Lemke drew a one-out walk in the first inning and Terry Pendleton singled to right, moving Lemke to third when Strawberry appeared to get a bad jump on the ball.

David Justice hit a blooper to shallow right, and Strawberry definitely got a bad jump. Samuel made a running attempt, and the ball fell off the end of his glove, scoring Lemke.

“I never saw the ball until it came out of the white shirts, and by then it was too late,” Strawberry said.

After hitting Ron Gant in the elbow on a 1-and-0 pitch, Martinez fell behind to Bream 3-and-0, then threw a strike before giving up the second grand slam against the Dodgers this season.