They Haven’t Beaten Him Yet : Braves: Steve Avery, 21, is 4-0 in five starts against the Dodgers. Tonight, he pitches the opening game of big series.

As he left the mound in Atlanta last Sunday after having pitched the Braves to a four-hit, 9-1 victory over the Dodgers, 21-year-old Steve Avery looked into that frenzied sea of red tomahawks, smiled, and couldn’t resist hurling his cap to the approving tribe behind the dugout.

Avery takes the mound again tonight at Dodger Stadium in another pivotal game in the battle between the Braves and Dodgers for the National League West lead.

He will see beach balls instead of tomahawks, and he knows that this capacity crowd will want his head, not what he wears on it.

“I know it will be different than what it was in Atlanta, but I still think it will be fun,” he said. “I like being the focus of the big crowd.

“Last year we were playing in front of 3,000 people. This is more exciting. It helps keep me on my game.”

On his game? When has he been off it while pitching against the Dodgers?

In his two seasons, this being his first full one in the majors, Avery is 4-0 with a 1.25 earned-run average in five starts against the Dodgers. He has a 2-0 record against them this year, having given up three earned runs in 22 2/3 innings of three starts.

Only three years out of high school, Avery can’t explain his dominance of the Dodgers, but some of it seems pretty basic.

Avery is beating everyone with regularity, having shaken the trauma of his 3-11, force-fed debut with the last-place Braves of a year ago.

He is 16-8, which is what the Braves had in mind when they selected him in the first round of the 1988 June draft, the third player chosen overall.

It was one step in a rebuilding process based on young pitching, the backbone of this improbable season.

As Bobby Cox, who manages the Braves after having initiated the plan during five years as general manager, said when he reflected on Avery’s progress:

“Steve is way ahead of schedule. I thought by ’93 he’d be toying with hitters, but he’s already started to do that.

“I mean, his fastball, curve and changeup are all above average, and I thought by ’93 his control would be as good as there is in baseball, but it’s already that good.”

The 6-foot-4 left-hander has 120 strikeouts and 60 walks in 181 innings. He pitches home games in a hitters’ haven but has a 3.48 ERA compared to 5.64 last year, when he was recalled after 2 1/2 minor league seasons.

Call it shock treatment for a young pitcher conditioned to success. Bad team, bad defense, bad thinking by the young Avery at times, but maybe an invaluable education.

“I firmly believe that the better the competition, the quicker the adjustment, if you have the ability and right mind-set,” Atlanta catcher Greg Olson said. “In Steve’s case, it’s worked out for the best.

“He matured mentally last year. He gained an understanding as to how to pitch and win at this level. It was so easy for him in high school and the minors. His stuff was so good he didn’t have to worry about setting hitters up. He could blow them away with fastballs.

“The reason he’s winning consistently now is that he also throws strikes with his curve and change-up, and it doesn’t matter what the count is. I mean, to win 16 games at 21 is unbelievable.”

More so considering there were times during that 3-11 second half of last season when pitching coach Leo Mazzone found Avery close to tears, believing he was letting the team and organization down.

“I kept reminding him that he had the pay-back to look forward to, that he was too good to let it keep happening,” Mazzone said.

Said Avery, in reflection: “I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t get down when I wasn’t winning. I wasn’t accustomed to it and didn’t like it.

“Obviously, there are times that you’re going to start questioning yourself, but I also knew I was better than the record suggested.

“That’s not to say I pitched that well or didn’t have things I needed to learn, but it would have been hard for anyone to come up and win consistently in the second half, the way the team was playing. I’m winning games now that I lost last year simply because the team is so much better.”

The Braves rebuilt their infield over the winter, and Avery rededicated himself at his home in Taylor, Mich.

“He came home with a burning desire to show everyone that last year was a fluke, an aberration,” Ken Avery, his father, said.

“He had a great off-season on the basis of work ethic and went to spring training a much stronger pitcher and person. I like to think he was helped more than hurt by the experience of last year.

“I mean, he’s far more relaxed as a pitcher, knowing he doesn’t have to strike everyone out. It didn’t take a brain surgeon to know how terrible the defense was last year. If he had come up with this defense behind him, he would have been .500 at worst.”

Ken Avery speaks from a baseball background. He graduated from Michigan State, signed with the Detroit Tigers and spent two seasons in the low minors. He was 13-4 at Duluth, Minn., in 1964, but decided to accept a coaching and teaching offer at a Taylor high school.

“That was an era of slave labor in baseball,” Ken Avery said. “I was married and we were expecting our first child. I had a choice between a $6,000-a-year teaching job and $450 a month for the four or five months of the baseball season. I was having a little shoulder trouble and didn’t feel I could pass up the security.”

As a former left-handed pitcher with coaching experience, Ken Avery has been a valuable resource for Steve Avery.

“He taught me how to pitch, how to act on the mound,” the son said. “We began working on mechanics when I was 8.”

A thin curveballer in Little League, Avery had filled out and was throwing so hard in high school that opposing teams would cheer when one of their batters hit a foul ball. He was 29-4 overall, 13-0 as a senior and at his toughest in tournament games, displaying the composure he displayed last Sunday against the Dodgers.

“He’d have lulls during the season, but the hotter the competition, the better he liked it,” his father said.

Cox, then the Atlanta general manager, went to Taylor to corroborate the rave reviews of his scouts.

“I only needed to see him once,” Cox said. “You don’t get any better than that.”

Avery signed a letter of intent to Stanford, decided he didn’t want to delay his pursuit of a pro career and accepted a $211,000 signing bonus from Atlanta, perceiving it to be a young organization offering rapid advancement.

“No one in their right mind could have predicted he would have this kind of success this soon,” said Ken Avery, now a district athletic director who can watch his son on cable television. “I don’t say he can accomplish it every year, but if he stays healthy he should get better.

“The one thing Dad kept telling him is that there are thousands of kids with talent, and what it comes down to is dedication and preparation, who’s better mentally. I don’t know how much of it sunk in, but his work ethic has always been outstanding.”

The Braves roster has 12 players drafted and developed in their system, including three-fifths of the rotation: Tom Glavine, Kent Mercker and Avery. The current ERA of 3.55 is the Braves’ best since 1984 and down from last year’s league high of 4.58.

Cox welcomed Avery to spring training by telling him to forget last year, that he was in the rotation to stay, which allowed Avery to use the exhibition schedule as a confidence builder.

That confidence has continued to build, and Avery reflected on his team’s improbable season, saying:

“I think people are already looking at us differently and will be afraid of the Atlanta Braves in the future. Some of our hitters are as young as many of our pitchers, so there’s still room for improvement. Of course, you don’t know how often you’re going to be in this position, so you want to take advantage of it.”

He referred to the pursuit of a division title, and then perhaps, the pennant and World Series, all of which will be followed on Nov. 4 by his wedding to his high school sweetheart.

First, though, is tonight’s engagement at Dodger Stadium. Avery won’t be throwing his cap into the stands, but the Dodgers may be forced to take theirs off to him again.