JONES ATONES AS BRAVES EVEN SERIES : ATLANTA 7, FLORIDA 1.

Byline: Ben Walker Associated Press 

Now these looked more like the Atlanta Braves of October.

Shamed by their sloppy showing in the opener, the Braves bounced back with the complete package Wednesday, just as Florida manager Jim Leyland feared.

Tom Glavine pitched shutout ball into the eighth inning, Chipper Jones and Ryan Klesko homered and the Braves caught everything in outplaying the upstart Marlins in all phases, winning 7-1 to tie the NL Championship Series at one game apiece.

``I said it last night: The Braves aren't going to get excited about one loss,'' Leyland said. ``They came back today and did everything almost perfect.''

Especially Jones. A day after his misplay put the Braves in a big hole, he played flawlessly in the field and also drove in three runs with three hits.

How did he deal with failure the previous night?

``I have a system down pat,'' he said. ``You take the car ride home with your spouse, you rant and rave, and cuss and whatnot. When you get out of the car, you just forget about it.''

Looking every bit like the team that's been boss in the NL throughout the 1990s, and nothing like the club that gave away Game 1, the Braves gave Glavine an early 5-0 lead.

``They weren't too happy with the loss last night, that's for sure,'' Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said. ``I felt they would swing great today. We scalded some balls.''

The Marlins fell for the first time in their young postseason history. They looked bad from the beginning, too - Gold Glove catcher Charles Johnson made his first error of the season on Kenny Lofton's leadoff bunt, and Alex Fernandez lasted just 2-2/3 innings in his shortest start since 1995.

Now, after their first setback in five playoff games, it will be the Marlins' turn to prove they can recover from such a lousy loss. Game 3 will be Friday night at Miami when rookie Tony Saunders, 3-0 against Atlanta this year, faces John Smoltz.

``The series is even. I wasn't celebrating last night and I'm not discouraged now,'' Leyland said.

Glavine did his best to restore the Braves' pitching prominence, allowing three hits in 7-2/3 innings. He retired the first nine batters and cruised until Devon White's RBI double with two outs in the eighth - a play, by the way, on which White was thrown out trying foolishly to stretch it into a triple.

``Nobody was in here panicked,'' Glavine said. ``Realistically, for us, unless we're facing elimination, we don't look at any game as a must-win. But we didn't want to go to Miami down 2-0 and having to play three times down there.''

Relievers Mike Cather and Mark Wohlers completed the three-hitter.

Atlanta's fielders, meanwhile, had a return to respectability. A day after several mistakes made all five runs off Greg Maddux unearned in a 5-3 defeat, the four players guilty of the misplays - Jones, Klesko, Fred McGriff and Lofton - each turned in neat grabs.

Klesko and Jones each homered for the second straight day. Keith Lockhart had three hits and scored three times.

Fernandez, one of several key players the Marlins acquired in the offseason to beat the Braves, was 2-0 against them this year. But he was tagged for six hits in his earliest exit since going 2-2/3 innings for the Chicago White Sox on May 25, 1995.

``I just had a bad day today,'' Fernandez said.

It took only one inning in this game to see that all the omens were in Atlanta's favor.

Jones and Lofton had no trouble making plays in the top of the first. On Tuesday night, Jones failed to handle a grounder down the third-base line that turned into a three-run double.

Lofton opened the bottom half with a bunt to the left side of the plate that Johnson reached quickly. But he threw low past first base on a play scored as a single and an error.

Johnson had gone 175 games since June 23, 1996, without an error, and set a major-league record for catchers this year for most consecutive games (123) in a season without a miscue.

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Photo

Photo: The Braves' Tom Glavine, throwing in the first inning, pitched shutout ball into the eighth against the Florida Marlins in Atlanta.

Associated Press