Braves Swiftly Chop Giants’ Margin to 3 1/2

With the relentless force of Hurricane Emily, the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night took another game off the National League West lead of the San Francisco Giants.

David Justice drove in four runs as the Braves pounded 17-game winner Bill Swift for the second time in six days and defeated the Giants, 8-2, on a six-hitter by Greg Maddux.

It was the 17th victory in the last 20 games for the Braves, who are 32-11 since the All-Star break, reducing the Giants’ lead from nine games to 3 1/2.

Atlanta’s Fab Four of Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery are 25-5 in that span, while the team earned-run average of the Giants, operating without injured starters Bud Black and Trevor Wilson, has risen from 3.42 at the break to 3.65. And in a 13-11 span since Aug. 3, it is almost 5.00.

“The Giants have to be feeling the heat,” Smoltz said after the Braves opened this final series with the Giants in the same way they closed the three-game sweep in San Francisco last week.

“(John) Burkett and Swift have never pitched so many innings and their other two starters are out,” Smoltz said.

“We have four guys experienced with pitching a lot of innings and pitching in pressure situations. We have to have a big edge there.”

The Braves have 30 games left, the Giants 31. San Francisco closer Rod Beck reflected on the race and said:

“The Braves have made a great run, but that’s all it still is, a run.

“They still have a long way to go. If we win one or two games here it doesn’t make the run seem so threatening.”

If?

The Giants must now try to beat Smoltz and Avery with a struggling duo of Bryan Hickerson and Burkett.

A crowd of 46,493 saw Maddux win for the ninth time in his last 10 decisions, improving to 16-9. He has given up only 10 earned runs in the 55 innings of his last seven starts, and held the Giants to three runs in the 17 innings of the last two.

Only Barry Bonds gave him trouble in this one. Bonds had three singles, two steals and hit his 39th homer. He later said his teammates need to stop hanging their heads.

“No one has anything to be ashamed of,” he said. “We’ve done a lot more than anyone expected, and we have to go out there with our heads up and stop pressing. They’re still trying to catch us, we’re not trying to catch them.”

Bonds said the Giants have to take the pressure off their pitchers by doing the little things. They have led only once in these last four games with the Braves and failed to convert scoring chances in the first and second innings against Maddux.

“Atlanta has a better team than we do because of their pitching, but I don’t care if they have 18 Cy Youngs,” Bonds said.

“You have to stay aggressive, you have to execute. It’s damn frustrating right now because we’re not doing it.”

The Giants will be bolstered on the weekend with the return of leadoff man Darren Lewis from the disabled list. Will Clark comes off a week later. In the meantime, Manager Dusty Baker turned up the clubhouse stereo after Tuesday’s game and said, “This ain’t a morgue and it ain’t the end of the world.”

An admittedly tired Swift, however, has given up 17 hits and 11 earned runs in the nine innings of his back-to-back losses to the Braves, and Baker said: “I don’t know if it’s Swifty or the Atlanta hitters. Every time he gets a pitch up they hit it.”

A five-run Atlanta fourth included a two-run single by Justice, a two out, run-scoring single by Damon Berryhill and a two run double by Mark Lemke.

Justice, who has 96 runs batted in, pounded his 35th homer against Dave Righetti on a 3-and-0 pitch after Righetti put him on his back with the previous pitch. Justice didn’t think it was intentional and wasn’t claiming revenge later. He talked instead of how the addition of Fred McGriff has eased the power burden for himself and Ron Gant, who has 32 homers and 90 RBIs.

The Braves are 29-9 with McGriff and averaging 5.9 runs per game. McGriff had an RBI double, a walk and scored twice as the Braves generated a hurricane of their own.

* LONG NIGHT: A home run by Pedro Munoz in the 22nd inning gave Minnesota a 5-4 victory over Cleveland in a game that lasted 6 hours 17 minutes. C2