Glavine Denies Padre Sweep With Shutout

Clinging to a one-game lead over San Diego in the race for home-field advantage and on the verge of being swept by the Padres, the Atlanta Braves needed a stopper Thursday.

They got Tom Glavine.

Glavine (16-4) pitched a two-hitter for his second consecutive shutout as the Braves defeated the Padres, 5-0, salvaging the final game of a three-game series at San Diego.

“Obviously, in this series you don’t want to get swept even more so than probably any other series,” Glavine said.

Andruw Jones drove in two runs and Chipper Jones homered and scored three times for the Braves, who hold a two-game lead over the Padres for the league’s best record.

Houston 6, Milwaukee 2--A day after Randy Johnson shut out the Brewers, Jose Lima completed the sweep.

Lima (11-6) pitched eight innings, giving up two runs and five hits while striking out six for his third consecutive victory. It was the seventh consecutive victory for the Astros.

Ricky Gutierrez hit a three-run triple in the fourth and Pete Incaviglia added a two-run double in the eighth in his first game for the Astros since being called up from triple-A New Orleans on Monday.

Pittsburgh 9, Cincinnati 6--The Pirates overcame five runs by the Reds in the first inning to complete their first sweep at Cincinnati in more than 11 years.

Kevin Young’s homer and Lou Collier’s tiebreaking triple in the sixth inning were the big hits for the Pirates, who won after Todd Van Poppel gave up five runs, four hits and walked two in only one-third of an inning.