Pirates Sting Bumbling Braves, 1-0 : NL Game 5: Glavine misses sign on suicide squeeze play. Later, Justice misses third base.

The scruffy, scheming Pittsburgh Pirates finally got the Atlanta Braves where they wanted them Monday.

They got them in a game that belonged in the streets.

“This was not like a major league game,” the Pirates’ Andy Van Slyke said, eyes as wide as a little boy’s. “It was too much fun.”

It was runners missing bases. Runners running into fielders. Batters missing signs. Everybody yelling at everybody else.

It was chaos. And everybody knows the Pirates are plenty good at chaos, which they proved again with a 1-0 victory that gave them the lead in the National League championship series, three games to two.

Before 51,109 fans who were perhaps watching their beloved Braves for the last time this season at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, the Pirates officially won on Jose Lind’s run-scoring single in the fifth inning and the shutout pitching of Zane Smith and Roger Mason.

But unofficially, they won by being themselves.

“I think, knock on wood, this team is playing Pirates’ baseball right now,” Manager Jim Leyland said. “The defensive plays, the heads up plays. . . . “

--The Pirates denied the Braves a run in the second inning by thwarting a suicide squeeze, with considerable help from the Braves.

--They denied them a run in the fourth inning on a batter’s interference call, a diving catch by Van Slyke that split his glove, and by successfully claiming that David Justice had missed third base.

That play at third featured Justice stumbling over the base, then apparently scoring while shortstop Jay Bell stood on the bag and screamed for somebody to throw him the ball.

Zane Smith took the ball from catcher Don Slaught and threw it to Bell, who tagged the base and ended the inning with a demonstrative “Out!” call by third base umpire Frank Pulli.

Replays supported Pulli’s call.

When asked if he had grazed the base, Justice said: “You can use that word if you want. But the point is, I hit it.”

Said Bell: “I’m absolutely sure he did not touch the base.”

--The Pirates ended the game with Braves standing on first and third, thanks to pitching by Mason, who had appeared in only two major league games in four years before he joined the Pirates from triple-A Buffalo on Aug. 8.

Mason and Smith combined to extend the Pirate pitchers’ streak of scoreless innings streak to 18, four short of a league playoff record.

--And during it all, Van Slyke was unsuccessfully trying to shoo a bird out of center field.

“This game almost had a playground atmosphere,” said Van Slyke, who then began imitating a whining boy. “It was like, ‘Batting out of or-der. He missed third ba-ase.’ It was like two different pitchers from two different streets battling each other.”

Afterward, though, the Braves’ whining was real.

They are upset because their top three hitters--Terry Pendleton, Ron Gant and Justice--are batting only .233 with five runs batted in.

They are also upset because they have held the Pirates’ top hitter, Barry Bonds, to a .150 average with only three singles and they still can’t stop that offense.

That is because Bell and Steve Buechele are hitting a combined .432, with Bell only three hits short of tying the league playoff record.

“We are so worried about the Pirates’ best hitters that we are slacking up a little on the other guys,” Lonnie Smith said.

The Braves also are not thrilled that the series moves to Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, beginning with Game 6 on Wednesday.

But the way things happened to them Monday in the second 1-0 game of this series, they would have lost anywhere.

Begin with the second inning, when the Braves loaded the bases with none out against Smith. Out ran Leyland, who figured it was hopeless to ask Smith to escape this jam unmarked.

“He was just hoping for damage control,” Smith said. “He told me to try and get out of it with just one or two runs.”

After striking out Rafael Belliard, Smith worked the count to 2-and-2 on pitcher Tom Glavine. On the next pitch, Brian Hunter sprinted home from third base, astonishing the Pirates.

But it also astonished Glavine, who had missed the squeeze-bunt sign and could only stick his bat out at the pitch. He struck out, and Hunter was easily thrown out for an inning-ending double play.

“Squeeze bunting on two strikes? I was surprised,” Slaught said.

“Perfect time to do it,” said Bobby Cox, the Braves’ manager. “Tommy just missed the sign.”

With the game still scoreless in the fourth inning, Justice led off by reaching second on first baseman Gary Redus’ throwing error, setting up a memorable series of events.

Hunter chopped a ball in front of home plate but was called out for bumping into Slaught. Greg Olson then hit a line drive to shallow center field, but Van Slyke made a diving catch that was so close to a trap that Olson threw up his hands in disgust at the ruling.

“I can see why he argued, because half of the ball was sticking out the other side of the glove,” Van Slyke said. “That glove will be spending (today) at the glove doctor. Maybe he will transplant a string of leather from a left-handed glove.”

Mark Lemke then started an uproar with a single to left field. Bonds reached the ball as Justice was rounding--and stumbling over--third base. Noticing Bell screaming, Bonds double-pumped before deciding to throw home anyway.

Bob Davidson, the home plate umpire, ruled that Slaught had missed the tag on Justice, so Slaught was busy arguing with him while Bell was still shouting for the ball.

“Obviously, I had trouble getting somebody to listen,” Bell said.

Finally Smith, who had taken the ball from Slaught, threw it to Bell for the out.

“Any time you see somebody jumping up and down on a base and screaming, you figure maybe the runner missed the base,” Smith said.

That set up Mason’s heroics. He relieved Smith with Pendleton on third base and two out in the eighth inning and got Gant on a popup.

Then in the ninth, after giving up one-out singles to pinch-hitter Tommy Gregg and Olson, Mason got Lemke on a grounder and Jeff Blauser on a fly to Bonilla in right field for the game-ending out.

“A couple of months ago, I would never have believed I would be in this situation,” said Mason, 33, who had four major league saves in 11 pro seasons before Monday. “But after being with this club a while, nothing surprises me.”