BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAYOFFS : Smoltz Will Face Jackson in Game 4

John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves, who has a 5-0 record with a 2.13 earned-run average in nine postseason games, will face Danny Jackson of the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 4 today.

“My own expectations are as high during the season as the postseason, but for me, I look at is as a chance to redeem myself,” Smoltz said. “I don’t see it as too pressure-filled. It’s just fulfilling a dream--I’ve pitched in 1,000 of these games when I was younger. That’s why I was upset when I didn’t get to start Game 1.”

Smoltz (15-11) is 0-1 in three games against the Phillies this season and was angry when, after faltering in his last start against the Houston Astros, he didn’t get to start Game 1, his regular turn in the rotation. Smoltz said he got carried away by the crowd in his last start.

“I don’t plan to let the crowd cause me to throw harder than I want to throw this time,” Smoltz said. “The crowd lifts you up and sometimes you feel like you are on air.”

Jackson (12-11) had a solid season and is 2-0 in three games against the Braves this season, despite the Braves batting .296 against him. When the Braves faced Jackson during last year’s playoffs, he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and they pounded him. Jackson gave up four runs in 1 2/3 innings, leaving with a 21.60 ERA.

Jackson, though, said he didn’t know if his best season since 1988, when he won 23 games, will make him a different pitcher today. “Good question,” Jackson said. “We’ll find out.”

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Lenny Dykstra plans to open a car wash during the off-season in Corona Hills, and this won’t be just any car wash. “It will have a baseball theme,” Dykstra said. “I’ll have jerseys of all the big players and the staff will wear uniforms--the Phillies’--and it will have other baseball attire.”

Dykstra, who grew up in Garden Grove but now lives in Philadelphia, said he’s been looking to open a business for the past couple of years and said Corona Hills checked out as the best place.

“My brother is going to run it, and I’ll be there when I get out there,” he said.

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The Phillies also set a couple of records during their Game 3 defeat. Mariano Duncan had two triples, a playoff first. Duncan and John Kruk hit back-to-back triples in the fourth inning, the first time in NL playoff history that two triples had been hit in an inning.

Duncan’s triple in the eighth inning against Kent Mercker was helped by David Justice, who called off center fielder Otis Nixon to make the catch at the wall, then missed the ball.

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Both times the Phillies won the first game of a playoff series, they won the series (in 1980 and 1983). They lost Game 1 in 1976, 1977 and 1978 and lost all three of those series.