Braves 10, Padres 6

Paul Newberry

Sunday, May 21, 2000 | 10:46 a.m.

ATLANTA - Keith Lockhart, filling in for the injured Quilvio Veras, homered for the first time in nearly a year and the Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres 10-6 Saturday night.

Rookie Rafael Furcal drove in three runs for the Braves, who have won seven of their last eight and have scored 56 runs during that span.

Veras, Atlanta's regular leadoff hitter, couldn't play after getting plunked on the right knee by a pitch Friday night. But Lockhart, hitting just .194, stepped in at second and went 3-for-4, including a three-run homer in the second inning. His last homer was May 25, 1999, at Milwaukee.

The switch-hitting Furcal moved into the leadoff spot and continued to flourish, driving in a run with a left-handed single in the fourth and adding a two-run single the next inning after switching around to bat right-handed. Furcal, 19, is 14-of-26 during a six-game hitting streak that has raised his season average to .340.

Chipper Jones also had a two-run single in the fourth, when the Braves broke a 3-3 tie by scoring five runs. The Padres had a chance to lessen the damage, but shortstop Damian Jackson bounced a throw to first with two outs and runners scored from second and third after the ball deflected away from first baseman Ryan Klesko.

Jackson made two errors in the game and the Padres made four overall, leading to four unearned runs.

John Burkett (3-2) picked up the win despite allowing six runs and 11 hits in 6 2-3 innings.

In the third, after giving up an RBI single to Klesko and forcing in a run with a walk to Bret Boone, Burkett escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam by striking out Jackson and getting Ruben Rivera on a double-play grounder.

The Padres put runners at first and third with one out in the fifth, but Boone hit into another double play. Burkett was finally knocked out in the seventh when Carlos Hernandez hit his first homer, a two-run shot.

The Padres started Will Cunnane (1-1), recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas earlier in the day. He had a 1-0 lead in the first on Phil Nevin's run-scoring double but couldn't hold it, surrendering six hits and five earned runs in 3 1-3 innings. Two more runs were unearned.

Nevin went 3-for-3 to improve to 12-of-18 through the first five games of the Padres' six-game road trip. He has three homers, 13 RBIs and six runs scored during his hot streak.

Tony Gwynn missed another game for the Padres because of a sore left knee. He has played only 16 of 42 games and will likely sit out Sunday. Notes: The Braves drew their second sellout and largest crowd of the year at Turner Field, 49,653. ... Gwynn has 3,080 hits, one shy of Cap Anson for 17th place on the career list. ... An 11-7 loss Friday ended a streak of 41 straight games in which the Braves won by scoring at least six runs, going back to an 8-7 setback at Toronto last July 20. ... Veras will probably miss Sunday's game along with Gwynn.