The San Diego Padres and Atlanta Braves will complete their three-game series tonight as they meet for the rubber match at Petco Park.

The teams have split the first two games of the series and just seven total runs have been scored in the process. Atlanta won Monday's opener by a 3-1 score and the Padres picked up a 2-1 victory on Tuesday.

Mike Thompson pitched seven stellar innings to lead San Diego to the victory last night. Thompson (2-0) allowed one run on four hits with two strikeouts for the Padres, who halted a four-game skid.

Mike Cameron recorded an RBI for San Diego, which won despite producing only two hits.

Jorge Sosa tossed 6 1/3 strong innings and added a solo home run for Atlanta, which lost for only the fifth time in its last 16 games overall. Sosa (1-6) surrendered two runs -- one earned -- on just the two hits with one strikeout and three walks.

Atlanta has still won four of the last six encounters with the Padres.

John Thomson hopes to rebound from his worst start of the season when the veteran right-hander takes the mound for the Braves tonight.

Thomson, who is seventh in the National League with a 2.76 ERA this year, struggled last Friday in Arizona, giving up a season-high six earned runs over 5 2/3 innings. It was just the second time Thomson has allowed more than two earned runs in his eight starts this season.

The 32-year-old Thomson has 12 career starts against the Padres and is 3-3 with a 3.33 ERA in those outings. He tossed six scoreless innings against San Diego on April 16, but wound up with a no decision.

For San Diego, Chris Young has pitched very well over the last month but has picked up just one victory in that span.

Young is 1-1 with a 3.27 ERA over his last five outings and has notched consecutive no decisions. He pitched in Seattle last Friday and gave up three runs and six hits over six innings. Young also struck out five and walked two vs. the Mariners.

Young, who will turn 27 on Thursday, picked up a win with seven shutout innings in his only career appearance against Atlanta on June 13 of last season.

With the call that confirmed that his father had finally gotten the call to the Hall, Ben Sutter burst out of Roswell High School and raced home to enjoy a celebration that he and his entire family had waited 13 years to enjoy.

Racing down the rural Georgia roads to his father's home in Kennesaw, Sutter eluded detection from the police with the same type of success that his father had enjoyed while pioneering his way toward the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"I'm glad I didn't get pulled over," said the 26-year-old Ben, who is a special-education teacher at the high school. "But they had every chance to get me."

Likewise, the select voters from the Baseball Writers Association of America had 12 previous chances to elect a deserving Bruce Sutter into the Hall of Fame. But it wasn't until Tuesday afternoon that they tallied enough votes to make him the fourth reliever in history to be elected to Cooperstown.

Sutter, who registered 300 saves and finished 512 games during 12 big-league seasons, received 76.9 percent of the vote in balloting by the BBWAA (75 percent is the minimum required for induction). The man credited with perfecting the since popularized split-finger fastball is the only pitcher never to have started a game to have gained election.

It was one he wasn't sure would ever come. With this being his 13th year of eligibility, time was running out. After 15 years, a player's name is removed from the ballot and the only chance for election is through the Hall of Fame's veterans committee.

"I guess 13 is a lucky number for me," the Hall's newest inductee said during a press conference at Turner Field on Tuesday night. "I did get turned down 12 times. You don't expect things to change."

During many of those 12 previous years, when he hadn't received a congratulatory call, Sutter keep himself busy by going hunting. But the increase in votes he received last year, combined with a recent phone call he received from veteran St. Louis journalist Rick Hummel, led him to believe it might be best to stay close to the phone this year.

Fortunately for him and each of the family members who were huddled in the home, the phone call they had awaited for 13 years finally was received around 1 p.m. ET. As soon as the 212 (New York City) area code appeared on the caller identification screen, all knew that this year was indeed different.

John Smoltz was intrigued and excited about the opportunity to represent the United States in the World Baseball Classic. But after giving it much thought, he's decided it's in his best interest to decline the invitation.

Smoltz said he was planning to call U.S. manager Buck Martinez on Tuesday to tell him of his decision, which is based solely on his desire to intelligently prepare for a season in which he doesn't want to experience arm problems again.

"I'm fighting some incredible ambition, but I need to be smart," said Smoltz, who experienced shoulder fatigue caused by tendinitis at the end of last season.

When Smoltz agreed to make himself a candidate for the U.S. team in December, he was under the impression he'd be able to wait until late-February before having to make an ultimate decision. But he's since learned that he would have had to make that decision within the next week.

"If I had until late February to make this decision, then it would be a no-brainer," Smoltz said. "I'd know exactly where I stood at that point. But right now, this is the best decision."

While some may believe Smoltz's decision signals he's still feeling discomfort in his right shoulder, the veteran right-hander says that's definitely not the case. He has thrown three times since Thursday and not experienced any type of ache or pain.

"The moment I come out and say I've got to be smart about something like this, people are going to think, 'he's got to be really hurt," said Smoltz, who will be 39 in May. "That's not the case. At this point, I'm going to really just get ready for the year and bite my tongue. It's just best to err on the side of caution."

Smoltz entered the 2005 season fully confident that he could make the successful transition from being a dominant closer to being the type of successful starter he was during the 1990s.

Mission accomplished.

In his first full season back in the rotation since 1999, he exceeded many expectations by throwing 229 2/3 innings and going 14-7 with a 3.06 ERA. Despite skipping his final two starts to rest his fatigued shoulder, he still finished fifth among National League pitchers in innings.

Smoltz came back to throw seven solid innings and get the win in Game 2 of the NL Division Series against the Astros. But he's since said that he likely wouldn't have been able to pitch again if the postseason would have extended beyond Game 4 of that series.

Because tests weren't showing any structural damage, Smoltz was convinced that he was simply battling tendinitis and would get healthy by resting it during offseason. So far, that seems to be the case.

"When I began throwing, I would have known right away if there were any lingering effects of the tendinitis," Smoltz said. "It seems to have made a nice full recovery."

Teammate Chipper Jones is still planning to play for the U.S. team in the WBC. Other Braves slated to participate include Andruw Jones (Netherlands), Jorge Sosa (Dominican Republic) and Chris Reitsma, Pete Orr and Minor Leaguer Scott Thorman, who would all play for Canada.

Bruce Sutter made history on Tuesday. Not only did he become the latest member of baseball's most exclusive club by the slimmest of margins, the right-handed split-fingered fastball artist became the first pure reliever ever elected into the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

In a year in which there were no runaway candidates, a select group of 520 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America cast their votes -- the most in history -- anointing only Sutter, who pitched for the Cardinals, Cubs and Braves in a career that spanned from 1976-88, ending when his signature pitch shredded the insides of his right elbow.

Only three pitchers previously elected to the Hall were known for their closing skills. But Hoyt Wilhelm, Rollie Fingers and Dennis Eckersley all made numerous starts during their illustrious careers. Sutter never started a game, but he finished 512 of them to record 300 saves, the 19th most in history.

"I hope more closers now get in," Sutter said during a conference call only moments after Dale Petroskey, the Hall of Fame president, announced his selection on BaseballChannel.TV. "Goose Gossage is a friend of mine. Definitely a Hall of Fame pitcher in my mind. Lee Smith, a friend and a teammate. He's definitely a Hall of Famer in my mind. I just think that sometimes the voters just try to compare us with the starting pitchers.

"We can't compete with their statistics: their innings and their strikeouts. If you compare [the relievers] to each other, I think that you'll see we're all pretty equal. Without us, it's tough to win."

Gossage and Smith, the all-time saves leader with 478, didn't come close to getting in on Tuesday. Sutter, who turned 52 years old this past Sunday, will be inducted during Hall of Fame weekend ceremonies in Cooperstown, N.Y., on July 30, giving baseball's red brick shrine on Main Street 196 former players, 103 elected by the BBWAA. He'll be in New York on Wednesday for the traditional Hall of Fame electee press conference.

Hall of Fame officials now determine the cap a player "wears" on his plaque in Cooperstown. For Sutter, that announcement is expected to be made at Wednesday's press conference.