BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Braves Find Relief When Rockies Falter : NL playoffs: Atlanta scores four in ninth as Colorado’s usually dependable bullpen struggles in 7-4 loss.

In the Colorado Rockies’ third year drive to the playoffs, relief was never in short supply. Starting pitchers completed only one game. The bullpen provided 43 saves and made a major league leading 456 appearances.

“The bullpen has been our savior,” Colorado Manager Don Baylor said Wednesday night, “but it’s been a long, long season and they’ve been up a lot and thrown a lot.”

And at some point the toil has to take a toll, particularly amid the first-time pressure of October and against an experienced playoff team that believes it owns the late innings.

The Atlanta Braves, who won Game 1 of this division series on a ninth-inning homer by Chipper Jones off Curtis Leskanic, won Game 2 Wednesday night by rallying from a 4-3 deficit with four runs in the ninth to claim a 7-4 win that was their 27th of 1995 in their final at-bat.

“It’s disheartening,” Baylor said. “We should be 2-0 going into Atlanta but we didn’t take advantage of opportunities last night and we beat ourselves again tonight, which has been the story historically against that team. We know we can play with the Braves, but we haven’t had a lot of success against them.”

Not a lot translates to a three-year record of 6-32 and 0-2 in a best-of-five series that resumes in Atlanta on Friday night--weather permitting.

Hurricane Opal forced the Braves to stay in Denver Wednesday night. Both teams are tentatively scheduled to leave today, but will not work out.

“There’s six inches of water on the field,” Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. “It’s too much for the pumps. We could have a problem playing Friday.”

The Rockies have a problem whenever it resumes.

“It’s tough to win three in Atlanta, it’s tough to win two in Atlanta and it’s tough to win one with a hurricane blowing,” said right fielder Larry Walker.

It was 3-0 with Tom Glavine working on a one-hitter when Walker rocketed a three-run homer to right center in the sixth inning, invigorating a Coors Field crowd of 50,063.

A one-out double by Dante Bichette off Steve Avery, making his first relief appearance since October of 1992, in the eighth and a two-out double by Andres Gallaraga off Alejandro Pena gave the Rockies a 4-3 lead.

Baylor had used five relievers in Game 1, and he used five more in Game 2 after Lance Painter provided the five innings that have been typical of his starters in a season in which the bullpen averaged 3 2/3 innings per game.

A pair of solo home runs by Marquis Grissom helped build the 3-0 lead against Painter, but Steve Reed, Bruce Ruffin and Leskanic held the Braves scoreless until the ninth when Leskanic, in his 78th appearance of the year, allowed a leadoff double by Jones, his third hit.

Left-hander Mike Munoz came in and gave up a game-tying single to Fred McGriff. There were two out when Darrin Holmes allowed consecutive singles to Mike Devereaux and pinch-hitter Mike Mordecai (on a 3-0 pitch) and then saw second baseman Eric Young throw away Rafael Belliard’s inning-ending grounder to allow two more runs to score. How did they beat themselves? Baylor counted the ways.

“We gave in on the 3-and-0 pitch with [the light hitting] Belliard up next, and we didn’t keep it to the one run [deficit],” he said.

Mark Wohlers put the Rockies away again in the ninth to preserve the game-winning hit for Mordecai, a 28-year-old rookie who batted .280 in 78 irregular at-bats and is now eight for 17 with runners in scoring position. Mordecai said he was ready when asked to pinch-hit for Pena, having warmed his hands on a cold night on a dugout heater.

He was looking for a fastball and was not surprised to get the hit sign on 3 and 0. Cox had given Dwight Smith permission to hit on 3 and 0 in Game 1 and he also delivered with a single.

“Why wouldn’t anyone want to hit on 3 and 0,” Cox said with a grin. “It’s the best pitch in the world to hit. I’d have even hit .300 if managers had let me hit 3 and 0.”

A struggling Leskanic stood at his locker later, reflecting on a season of unending relief, do-or-die situations.

“The mental and physical drain has been enormous,” he said. “You get out of one situation, gasp for breath, say ‘Thank God it’s over,’ then there’s another. We’ve been so successful, it’s just very frustrating to lose two like we’ve lost the last two, but we’ve got three chances left. Maybe we can come back.”

Count on this: The bullpen isn’t through yet.