Johnson’s two homers lead Braves over Mets

Kelly Johnson stood in front of his locker, his eyes bright with excitement.

“That was one of the most exciting ones I’ve seen between the Braves and the Mets,” he said.

“It’s only April. And if that’s something to look forward to for the rest of the year, it could be pretty exciting.

“I have a feeling that we’re going to change hands at the top of the division many more times.”

Johnson homered on Tom Glavine’s first pitch of the game, then hit a tiebreaking, three-run drive off Aaron Heilman in the eighth inning. The first multi-homer game of his career sent Atlanta to a 9-6 victory over New York on Sunday, and for the second time in three weekends the Braves took two of three from the Mets.

A sellout crowd of 55,671 came out on a sunny spring afternoon to watch Glavine face John Smoltz, his golfing buddy and former teammate. What was a pitcher’s duel through five innings turned into a battle of bats. Jose Reyes’ three-run triple in the sixth put Glavine and the Mets ahead, but Edgar Renteria erased a 6-3 deficit in the seventh with a three-run homer off Scott Schoeneweis.

Johnson went three for four, making him 13 for 25 (.520) for the week.

After three weeks, the first-place Braves (12-6) have a half-game lead in the NL East over the Mets (11-6), who last year ended Atlanta’s run of consecutive division titles at 14.

“I don’t think it’s too early for any kind of signature win,” Smoltz said.

“We were going to lose this game. For all the ways they scored in the sixth inning, it just looked like it was too much for us to come back. And for us to come back and win this game was just a tribute to everybody’s effort to not give in and not give up.”