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Atlanta 8, Arizona 1

PHOENIX, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Javier Lopez, making his first start of the playoffs, put Atlanta in front with a two-out, two-run homer off the right-field foul pole in the seventh inning Wednesday night and the Braves then staged a two-out explosion in the eighth to storm past Arizona, 8-1, and even their National League Championship Series at a game each.

A pitcher's duel between Atlanta's Tom Glavine and Arizona's Miguel Batista disintegrated in favor of the Braves, who gained home-field advantage in the best-of-seven series. The action will resume Saturday night at Turner Field.

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Batista retired the first two Atlanta batters in the seventh inning of what was a 1-1 game.

But he walked then Andruw Jones on four pitches, just the second baserunner Atlanta had managed since the first inning, and Lopez lined a shot off the foul pole to put the Braves in front. Lopez sat out Atlanta's division series sweep of Houston following an ankle sprain suffered during the final week of the regular season.

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"The ankle feels good," Lopez said. "Not 100 percent but it was good enough for me to start a game today."

"Javy is not playing pain-free," Braves manager Bobby Cox said. "It's still hurting. Don't get me wrong, when I say he is ready to go, he's not 100 percent. It's amazing."

Mike Morgan came on to start the eighth for Arizona and he, like Batista, retired the first two batters of the inning.

But Julio Franco singled, Chipper Jones walked and both scored on a double by Brian Jordan. Greg Swindell was summoned to relieve Morgan and he promptly gave up a two-run homer to right by B.J. Surhoff that made it 7-1.

Bobby Witt was next to the mound and he surrendered consecutive singles to Andruw Jones, Lopez and Rey Sanchez to account for the final run of the game.

Glavine stayed around long enough to get the win, giving up five hits over seven innings with two walks and two strikeouts. Steve Karsay worked a perfect eighth and John Smoltz did the same in the ninth.

"Glavine was every bit as spectacular in his own right as Randy Johnson was (in Game 1)," Arizona manager Bob Brenly said. "He pitched right into the strength of his defense. We hit a lot of balls right at their defenders. He knew where the guys were positioned behind him and he forced hitters to hit the balls to his defense."

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Although he improved to just 5-8 in LCS play, Glavine recorded his 12th career postseason win. He tied Smoltz for the most in history.

"I always feel like Game Two is an urgent one in any series," Glavine said. "So much can happen one way or the other, it's a huge swing game."

Arizona's lone run also came in a two-out rally. Reggie Sanders walked after two were away in the sixth, went to third on a single by Steve Finley and scored on a sharp single up the middle by Matt Williams.

Atlanta went nine innings in the opening game of the series without a run, but needed only one pitch to produce one Wednesday night. Marcus Giles led off the game by blasting Batista's first offering into the left-field seats.

Batista took the loss despite giving up just two hits -- the homers by Giles and Lopez. The Arizona starter retired 18 out of 19 batters before Andruw Jones walked in the seventh. The only Brave to reach base in that stretch was Sanchez, who got aboard on a fielding error by Williams at third base in the fifth.

"I did my job," Batista said. "I was supposed to go out there and give my team a chance to win. I didn't make mistakes. I wouldn't say the (home run pitches) were bad pitches, they just hit them well. There are no bad pitches in this league.

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"You can make those pitches 20 times and they hit them once. They happened to hit two good pitches."

Curt Schilling will pitch for the Diamondbacks in Game 3 Saturday night while the Braves will go with John Burkett.

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