BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : A Victory Follows the Bouncing Ball : NL Game 2: Avery shuts out Pirates for 8 1/3 innings, beating them, 1-0, when Lemke’s bad-hop double scores Justice.

As he did three weeks ago before shutting out the Dodgers during the NL West championship race, Steve Avery prepared for Thursday’s night’s playoff game with the Pittsburgh Pirates by laying on the trainer’s table and taking a nap.

Only this time, to see if he was really that calm, Atlanta Braves’ teammate Mike Heath walked past and stuck a wet finger into his ear.

Avery did not move.

“We call it a Wet Willie,” Avery said with a shrug.

Said Heath: “Just checking on the kid to see if he was relaxed. Yes, he was relaxed.”

Wet Willie was the worst thing that happened to him all night.

Pitching like the veteran that he became while going 5-0 during the final six weeks of the season, Avery defied the Pirates and common sense by allowing six hits and only four balls out of the infield in 8 1/3 innings, leading the Braves to a 1-0 victory and a 1-1 tie in this best-of-seven series.

Before 57,533 at Three Rivers Stadium, Avery, the youngest player on either roster--he is only 21--gave the Braves their first postseason victory in Atlanta history while proving that for a pitcher, age is all in your arm.

“He may be young enough to own a rattle,” the Pirates’ Andy Van Slyke said, “but he does not rattle.”

Neither does former Dodger Alejandro Pena. He recorded his 12th save in 12 save situations since joining the Braves by stranding Bobby Bonilla on third base in the ninth inning when Steve Buechele grounded out and Curtis Wilkerson took a called third strike.

By that time, Avery had worked out of jams in the seventh and eighth innings, stranding three runners.

And against Pirate starter Zane Smith, the Atlanta offense could not relax because its only run had come on a bad-hop double by Mark Lemke. His hit bounced past Buechele at third base in the sixth inning to score David Justice.

So when Pena pounded his fist into his glove after the final out and danced toward Greg Olson, the Braves’ catcher simply stood there and watched, as disbelieving as the Pirates.

“The last pitch of the game was the last pitch I could catch,” Olson said. “I was absolutely mentally drained.”

But his problems are nothing that a three-game series before thousands of war-painted fans at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium cannot fix. The Pirates were 0-6 there this season.

“Going back to the ‘Chop Shop,’ ” Avery proclaimed. “This thing is going to get even more fun.”

Said the Braves’ Ron Gant: “The pressure is on the Pirates now.”

Gant felt little pressure Thursday, considering the Braves tied a National League championship series record with only one outfield putout, a fly ball caught by right fielder Justice in the eighth inning.

Gant’s biggest problem was avoiding batteries thrown by frustrated Pittsburgh fans.

“I was dodging them for a while, which wasn’t too much fun,” he said. “But we saved one. Going to put it in my Walkman.”

The Pirates should have been so flexible. Avery said he did not have his good fastball, the one that allowed him to go 2-0 against the Pirates during the regular season with a 2.57 earned-run-average.

So he threw more changeups and curveballs, which resulted in nine strikeouts with only two walks.

“I guess I fooled them a little bit,” the soft-spoken Avery said.

A little bit?

Barry Bonds, who has one hit in six at-bats in this series, grounded into a double play and popped out to the shortstop with Bonilla on second base and none out in the ninth inning.

Van Slyke, the hero of Game 1, struck out and grounded out when batting with runners on base.

“If we face him again in this series, I don’t see it being much different from tonight,” Van Slyke said. “For a kid just 21 years old, he was remarkable.”

Avery, the youngest pitcher to start a playoff game in more than seven years, walked Gary Redus on five pitches to start the game, but then showed his stuff by striking out Jay Bell, Van Slyke and Bonilla on nine pitches.

No Pirate hit the ball past an infielder until Jose Lind’s single to left field with two out in the fifth inning.

“When you get eight or nine guys in a row, you start to get a feeling,” Avery said. “It’s like, maybe you can close these guys out.”

But first he needed a run, which he got in the sixth inning when Braves took their first lead in 26 postseason innings dating back to 1982.

It happened after a single to left field by Justice, who moved to second on a grounder by Olson. Lemke’s hit bounced off the dirt on the second hop and flew wildly past Buechele and into left field foul territory, scoring Justice.

“Like the ball hit concrete,” Buechele said.

“I made one mistake,” said Zane Smith, who gave up eight hits in seven innings. “Avery made none.”

Particularly in the eighth, after Redus singled to center field and stole second base. Bell then hit a grounder up the middle that was stopped by a diving Lemke, preventing Redus from scoring. With runners on first and third, Van Slyke then hit a grounder to shortstop Rafael Belliard to end the inning.

Leo Mazzone, the Braves’ pitching coach, had jogged to the mound to speak with Avery before Van Slyke stepped to the plate.

“About a 10-second conversation,” Mazzone said. “I told him to just keep going what he was doing. Tonight, that’s all you had to say.”

* JUAN GUZMAN: The Toronto Blue Jays have a rising star in the right-handed pitcher, a Dodger who got away. C6

* BASEBALL REPORT: C6