Glavine Wouldn’t Change Much of It : Braves: He says his pitches were in the right places in his four innings.

Atlanta left-hander Tom Glavine considered it a compliment that his supposed struggles Sunday were being analyzed after the Braves’ 3-0 loss to the Dodgers.

Given a chance to move his team back atop the National League West--and to become the first 20-game winner in the major leagues--Glavine lasted only four innings Sunday, his shortest outing since a 3 1/3-inning stint against Cincinnati on April 19 in his second start of the season. He gave up three runs during his brief day in the Dodger Stadium sun, increasing his earned-run average to 5.14 in his past five starts but hardly spoiling his strong Cy Young credentials.

“I’ve had a good year. I’ve elevated my game and people’s expectations of me,” said Glavine, who is 19-11 with a 2.59 ERA and 177 strikeouts after pitching a league-leading 232 2/3 innings.

“Now, I go out there and give up a few runs, and people wonder what’s wrong. Even today. What happened today? We lost, 3-0, but it wasn’t like they hammered the ball off me. We still had a chance to win the game and that’s what I’m trying to do every time I go out there, keep my team in the game. I’m not thinking shutout.

“Even though my ERA and numbers haven’t been as spectacular as earlier in the year, I don’t think I’m pitching badly.”

Glavine, a Massachusetts high school hockey star who was chosen by the Kings in the fourth round of the 1984 entry draft, acknowledged he wasn’t as sharp in the early innings Sunday as he would have liked. That has happened in his last few starts, resulting in a 2-3 record since Sept. 2. “It just seems what is able to go wrong in the first inning, has gone wrong,” said Glavine, who said working on three days’ rest wasn’t the problem Sunday.

Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox shrugged when asked about Glavine’s difficulties. “Location. He’s not getting his pitches where he wants,” Cox said.

But according to Glavine, he was throwing his pitches where he wanted on Sunday. The Dodgers simply hit those pitches where he didn’t want them to.

Without hitting a line drive, the Dodgers scored twice in the first inning. Mike Sharperson set things off with a blooper to left-center field that left fielder Lonnie Smith was slow to scoop, enabling the alert Sharperson to take second. With an 0-and-2 count on Darryl Strawberry, Glavine threw an inside fastball and Strawberry dumped it on the right-field foul line, sliding into third for a run-scoring triple as the ball eluded David Justice.

Overshifting to the left side against the right-handed hitting Eddie Murray, the Braves could only watch helplessly as Murray lifted a soft liner over the head of shortstop Rafael Belliard for the second Dodger run.

Not a ferocious drive among them, but enough to provide a lead Dodger starter Ramon Martinez would not relinquish. Martinez produced the hardest hit ball against Glavine Sunday with a home run to right in the fourth inning on a 2-and-0 pitch.

“He gives up three runs and everybody thinks he’s had an off-day,” catcher Greg Olson said, “but that really wasn’t the case. Strawberry gets the one hit when he gets jammed, and we don’t make a good play on Sharperson’s single, which turns into a double. Martinez hits a home run, which you don’t expect. You don’t think you’re going to have to hit the black on that pitch and he just hit it. You have to give Martinez credit.”

Given a chance to do anything over, Glavine said he would change little.

“I made a good pitch to Sharperson. The guy just hits it off the end of the bat and bloops it and ends up on second,” Glavine said. “He hits it a little better and it’s a fly-ball out.

“The only pitch I’d like to have back is the pitch Murray hit. The home run ball Ramon hit, I’d throw that 10 more times. He took a big swing and he got it. The pitch to Darryl was where I wanted, although I could have gotten it in a little more. Even so, he hit it off the handle. The pitch to Murray was the only pitch I felt was in a bad location. Raffy (Belliard) was playing back, trying to cut off the run, and Murray being the player he is, he took advantage of it.”

Glavine regretted only that the Braves failed to take control of the race. “We’ve got two weeks left. It’s not time for us to panic.”

“We know we’re on the same caliber as these guys and anyone else. if the season were to end today--and thank God it’s not--you’d have to say this team has gone a long way. If you’d told us in spring training we’d be in second place, no one would have believed it. But our goals have changed, and if we don’t win, we’re going to be disappointed.”