BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Braves Run Through Pirates Again : NL Game 1: Bream scores from second on infield hit, Smoltz goes a strong eight innings and Atlanta rolls to 5-1 victory.

What were the odds that the Atlanta Braves would dominate the Pittsburgh Pirates in Game 1 of their National League championship series the way they dominated them in the final two games of last year’s series?

They were approximately the same odds that Sid Bream would score from second base on a infield single.

Or that Mark Lemke would be the second baseman with the most diving stops.

Or that John Smoltz would hold the highest-scoring team in the league to one hit in five innings.

Or that Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke would fail to combine for more than one hit or drive in a run. Again.

The Braves did what they do best in October--they surprise the heck out of you--while the Pirates acted typically frozen during the Braves’ 5-1 victory before 51,871 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

“We played 162 games this way,” Lemke said with a shrug. “We might as well keep doing it.”

Complete with a game-ending tomahawk chop performed by reliever Mike Stanton after he froze Orlando Merced on an inside fastball, the Braves took a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven series by providing viewers with an October rerun.

--Including last October, the Pirates have scored one run in the last 31 postseason innings against the Braves.

Jose Lind’s home run in the eighth inning broke an NL playoff-record 29 consecutive scoreless inning streak by their offense.

--Smoltz, who gave up four hits in eight innings, is 3-0 against the Pirates in the postseason with a 1.93 earned-run average.

Lind’s home run came one out before Smoltz would have tied teammate Steve Avery’s playoff-record 16 1/3-inning scoreless streak.

Not that Smoltz even had his best stuff.

“Believe it or not, I think I’ve had better,” he said. “Basically I just let them put the ball in play and let our defense do the rest.”

--Bonds and Van Slyke, who combined to hit the ball out of the infield once in eight plate appearances, have nine hits in 59 at-bats (.152) against the Braves in the postseason.

Lind has one more postseason home run against the Braves than Bonds has runs batted in. One to none.

“Barry and I absolutely have to start doing our share, but nobody gets this far with just two guys,” Van Slyke said. “It took a total team effort to get here, and tonight, that total team effort stunk.”

At least the Pirates played the Braves even for one inning.

It wasn’t until the bottom of the second inning that Bream, with his surgically scarred right knee encased in a heavy brace, used that leg to send the Pirates into a game-long funk.

With two out, Bream was on second base after his single and Damon Berryhill’s walk against loser Doug Drabek.

Lemke then hit a hard grounder up the middle that was backhanded behind second base by Lind. The ball fell out of Lind’s glove and Bream never stopped running.

Ignoring the raised arms of Jimy Williams, the third base coach who desperately wanted him to stop, Bream lumbered around third and scored easily against a stunned Pirate defense.

“Yeah, I was surprised he scored, considering the third-base coach was holding up his hands,” Van Slyke said. “I played with Sid quite a few years, and I’ve never seen him score from second on an infield hit.”

It’s rare for Braves to see Bream score on an outfield hit.

“Most of the time the ball has to hit the wall to get him home from third,” Lemke said. “I always told Sid that if he ever tried to score from second on an infield hit, be sure and pick up his feet so he won’t fall over the pitcher’s mound.”

Bream, who also doubled and drove in a run while causing the fans to lay down their tomahawks and chant, “Sid, Sid, Sid,” said he would have been glad to obey Williams’ signs.

But his legs, including a right knee that has undergone surgery four times, wouldn’t let him.

“If I tried to stop, my knees would have gone in the stands,” Bream said. “It would have taken me three-fourths of the way to home plate just to stop. I couldn’t do anything but run.”

Said Williams: “Sid may not be a power runner, but he’s a smart runner.”

As if the Pirates weren’t awed enough upon falling behind, 1-0, Lemke stunned them in the third when he made a backhand stop and fall-away throw of a grounder up the middle by Mike LaValliere.

Granted, LaValliere was probably the only member of the Pirates who could not have beaten the throw. But he didn’t, and soon the Pirates were beating themselves.

In the fourth, after Bream’s double scored David Justice, who had walked, Merced made a bad throw to Lind at first base on Ron Gant’s bunt.

Bream scored to make it 3-0, and the Pirates were never close again.

“If the Pirates seemed like they were in a funk tonight, well, I think John Smoltz had a lot to do with it,” said Jeff Blauser, who completed his late-season journey from the bench to the spotlight by hitting a home run that gave the Braves a 4-0 lead.

Van Slyke did his best to rationalize. But even at that, he struck out.

“Look, the last two years we won the first game of our series and lost the series, so maybe . . . “ he said, pausing. “Of course, you hate to think that we would ever be helped by a loss. No, I guess not.”