BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Pagliarulo Answers Twins’ Call in 10th : AL Game 3: His pinch-hit home run gives Minnesota a 3-2 victory over Toronto. Twins lead series, 2-1.

When the game droned into its fourth hour, Mike Pagliarulo ducked into the tunnel between the Minnesota Twins’ clubhouse and dugout and hit some balls off a batting tee to stay loose--and to stay awake.

“You get so stiff sitting around,” said Pagliarulo, who didn’t start against Toronto Blue Jay left-hander Jimmy Key on Friday night. “You’ve got to get your legs loose, so sometimes I’d ride the bike, too. I just wanted to stay ready.”

He was finally summoned in the 10th inning, and when Blue Jay reliever Mike Timlin threw him a fastball that didn’t sink quite enough, Pagliarulo was ready for it. His home run over the right-field fence lifted the Twins to a 3-2 victory over the Blue Jays Friday at the SkyDome in Game 3 of the American League championship series, ending the first extra-inning playoff game since Game 4 of the National League series between the Dodgers and Mets on Oct. 9, 1988.

Pagliarulo’s home run, the sixth pinch-hit homer in playoff history and third by an American League player, completed an impressive comeback and gave Minnesota a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.

Despite seeing their big winner, Scott Erickson, hit for two runs in the first inning, the Twins rebounded for runs in the fifth and sixth innings off Key and effectively silenced the once boisterous crowd of 51,454.

“This is just a great win,” said Minnesota reliever Rick Aguilera, who saved the victory for Mark Guthrie by pitching a perfect 10th inning.

“We fell behind early, but our bullpen kept us close,” he said after extending the Twin relievers’ exemplary string to one unearned run in 12 1/3 innings. “The bullpen gave us a chance to get ahead.”

Pagliarulo, who was signed as a free agent after the Twins lost Gary Gaetti to the Angels, took advantage of the chance presented him with one out in the 10th inning Friday.

“It was probably one of the shortest games I’ve ever played, but the biggest,” he said. “Off some pitchers, you can think home run, but (Timlin) throws a tough ball to pull. He’s got a real hard sinker. I’m glad I faced him before. I was just trying to hit it hard, up the middle.”

He wasn’t sure it would carry over the right-field fence, but once it disappeared, he fairly flew around the bases, barely touching down long enough to touch his spikes to the bag to make his home run official.

“It was such a great thrill and I was sprinting so hard, I almost missed first base,” Pagliarulo said with a sweaty smile.

Timlin knew as soon as he threw it that the ball--and the Blue Jays’ chance of surging ahead in the series--were gone.

“It was a horrible pitch. It was right down the middle,” Timlin said. “It was a great pitch for him to hit. . . . The conditions were right. I was surprised it didn’t sound like a shot out of a gun.”

Erickson’s performance again belied his claims that his sore right elbow no longer troubles him, and he flailed through a two-run, three-hit inning. Joe Carter’s two-out home run to left-center got things going, then John Olerud walked, Kelly Gruber singled off the mound and Candy Maldonado doubled to left to drive in Olerud.

“I felt great,” said Erickson, who was 12-3 in the first half of the season with a 1.83 earned-run average but was 8-5 with a 5.20 ERA after a strained elbow forced him onto the disabled list. “Joe (Carter) is a good hitter. . . . Sometimes, these things just happen.”

Key retired the first 11 Twins he faced, tying an AL record for most batters retired from the start of the game, but the Twins got to him in the fifth. Shane Mack led off with a triple off the right-field fence, a drive Carter scaled the wall in a vain effort to catch. When he landed, he had sprained his right foot, an injury that forced him out of the game in the seventh inning and leaves him questionable for more than designated-hitter duty tonight.

Mack scored when second baseman Roberto Alomar threw home late on Kent Hrbek’s grounder, and Minnesota tied the score in the sixth. Chuck Knoblauch doubled to left with one out and scored after Olerud cut off Carter’s throw on Kirby Puckett’s single to right.

“I’m pretty sure a healthy Joe Carter has a chance on that play, but he was playing on guts alone,” Toronto Manager Cito Gaston said.

Gaston maintained an impassive expression after the 3-hour 36-minute loss, in which he used four pitchers and Minnesota five. The teams tied an AL record by using 35 players, 19 by the Twins and 16 by the Blue Jays.

“We started well. One more key hit or fly ball and we win the ballgame,” Gaston said calmly.

Pagliarulo made no effort to hide his glee. “If we would have lost the first game here, that would have put us in a hole,” he said. “We didn’t get down after we got behind, and we just kept plugging. The thing is we didn’t give up. That’s the great thing about this team.”

* STATUS: Toronto right fielder Joe Carter, who has not missed a regular-season game since ‘88, might miss Game 4 after spraining an ankle. C8