Martinez Makes Dodgers Smile : Baseball: He hits his first major league home run and pulls out of his pitching slump as L.A. defeats Braves, 3-0, and takes 1 1/2-game lead in NL West.

The story of the game, and the weekend, was captured in the smile. The dazed, Christmas-morning smile of Ramon Martinez.

It was seen by 49,105 fans who celebrated in the fourth inning against the Atlanta Braves Sunday when Martinez did something he had never done before, something he might never do again.

The Dodgers’ ace pitcher, and one of their worst hitters, hit a home run to spark a 3-0 victory.

“Did you see that? Did you see his face?” Brett Butler said later. “Amazing.”

If you think that’s amazing, check today’s standings.

After coming within two innings of falling 1 1/2 games behind in second place Saturday night, the Dodgers are in first place and leading the Atlanta Braves by that same margin after their victory in the rubber match of the three-game series.

Martinez not only hit a home run, he gave up only two hits in seven shutout innings despite pitching with a bruised right biceps and strained right hip. He was helped by Mike Sharperson’s first-inning hustle and the bullpen’s late-inning relief.

“Today the Braves saw experience coming through, they saw extra effort coming through,” Darryl Strawberry said.

“You hate to say the Braves became tentative but . . . they were looking like they realized, ‘Hey, we really are going to have to play to beat these guys.”

After winning two of three games during the weekend and 11 of 18 during the season against the Braves, the Dodgers can finally say what they have been dying to say for a month.

“From here on in, if we keep winning, who cares what the Braves do?” Sharperson said with a smile.

Although that is mathematically correct, the schedule does not seem to agree.

The Dodgers have 11 games remaining, six at Dodger Stadium and five on the road, against the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres. Those teams’ combined record is 145-154.

The Braves have 12 games remaining, six at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and six on the road, against the Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds. Those teams’ combined record is 131-167.

“This series did not resolve anything,” Orel Hershiser warned. “Only with a sweep could somebody have won something. There was nothing won by anyone. There is still a lot of time for the Braves to catch up.”

At least outwardly, the Braves agreed.

“The last time we were in here, (the deficit) was 9 1/2 games, and we made that up,” catcher Greg Olson said. “There is still a lot of games left.”

In taking their biggest lead over the second-place Braves in a month, the Dodgers beat ace Tom Glavine, who gave up eight hits and three runs in only four innings. Glavine had given up only one run in 18 previous innings at Dodger Stadium.

Glavine was pitching on three days’ rest, as did Martinez when he struggled two weeks ago in Cincinnati.

“We knew Glavine might be a little tired because of the short rest, so we wanted to jump on him early,” Sharperson said.

And since Sharperson believed he had let the team down Saturday night by grounding out with the bases loaded, he wanted to be the one to jump.

With one out in the first, he hit a blooper to left field. While Lonnie Smith casually approached the ball, Sharperson hustled into second base with a double.

He scored three pitches later on Strawberry’s triple down the left-field line, and the tone had been set.

“As soon as I hit the ball, something inside me went, ‘Go for two!’ ” Sharperson said.

“I don’t know what it was. I just went.”

After Eddie Murray’s single made the score 2-0 after one inning, the stage belonged to Martinez, who nearly fell on his face in the top half of the first.

Not that the Dodgers were worried, but when three of the first four Braves hitters reached base against Martinez, there were visions of last Sunday’s disaster in Atlanta. That was when Martinez gave up five runs in the first inning.

“With the big game, I was feeling a little pressure,” said Martinez, who was also worried because he had given up 10 earned runs in his last two starts spanning 5 2/3 innings.

With one out in the first, Mark Lemke singled to right. But Lemke was then thrown out attempting to steal second by catcher Gary Carter.

Terry Pendleton and David Justice, the next two hitters, both walked. Then Martinez went to 3-and-0 on Ron Gant.

But Martinez came back with a strike against Gant before he hit a foul pop behind home plate, which Carter caught to end the inning.

“I said to myself, ‘You’ve got to make the adjustments, you’ve got to make the pitches,’ ” Martinez said. “And I finally did.”

In the next six innings, despite four more walks, he struck out seven more and gave up only an infield single. And this was even though he strained his hip while falling over second base after a single in the second inning.

“A gutty performance,” Brave Manager Bobby Cox said.

But Martinez said he was happier with his bases-empty home run, on a 2-and-0 pitch, than his pitching.

“The home run was more fun,” he said.

That’s the way it looked. After the ball sailed over the right-field fence, Martinez was smiling so broadly that his teammates were laughing at him.

Steve Wilson and Roger McDowell combined to stop the Braves in the final two innings, with McDowell getting his eighth save.

Dodger Attendance

Sunday: 49,105

1991 (75 Datezs): 3,077,848

1990 (75 Dates): 2,789,012

Increase: 288,83

1991 average: 41,038