WORLD SERIES / ATLANTA BRAVES vs. MINNESOTA TWINS : Braves Need Some Sounds of Silence : Baseball: Minnesota’s Metrodome spawns some strange plays and proves to be a difficult place for visiting Atlanta to perform.

Life was so bewildering for the Atlanta Braves Saturday that the most distressing moment for the team was the most peaceful moment for their left fielder.

After chasing Greg Gagne’s fifth-inning home run until it sailed over the left-field wall, Brian Hunter remained at the wall. He leaned into the padding. He sighed.

He wasn’t monitoring the ball, he was monitoring his sanity.

“For some reason, at that part of the wall, I couldn’t hear all the people,” Hunter said. “It was the quietest place in the park. It was kind of nice.”

Gagne’s shot eventually helped the Minnesota Twins to a 5-2 victory over the Braves in Game 1 of the World Series, leaving the Braves to clear out their ears and their heads.

The famed Metrodome noise, combined with first-game jitters, turned a resilient playoff team into a group resembling 10 guys you might run across in spring training.

“This was not just another day at the office,” said the Braves’ Jeff Treadway, who struck out twice and made an error.

“Anything that somebody could feel, we felt.”

And heard.

“It was like going to a club and standing right in front of the speakers all night,” said Hunter, referring to his spot in left field surrounded by more than 55,000 screaming, hanky-waving fans. “We just hoped we wouldn’t do anything to make it even louder.”

Said Treadway: “There were two times out there that the noise was louder than anything I’ve ever heard. There was a little rumble, a little shake.”

And down came the Braves, who lost as colorfully as they had been winning.

--A wild pitch was thrown by their catcher.

On the next pitch, Gagne homered.

“Just as I was throwing back the ball, I saw where (Charlie Leibrandt) wanted a new ball, and I tried to stop my throw . . . and it got away from me,” said Greg Olson, who bounced the ball past the mound. “It didn’t have anything to do with the homer. At least, I don’t think so.”

--In two innings, their first relief pitcher threw only one more strike than balls. And one of those strikes was a 440-home run by Kent Hrbek.

Jim Clancy was so stunned by the shot, he watched a replay for confirmation that it happened.

“Yeah, he crushed it,” said Clancy, who has a 5.60 earned-run average since joining the Braves July 31.

--Their veteran first baseman, who batted .300 in the playoffs and is supposed to feast against the Twins’ right-handed pitching, went hitless in four at-bats while failing to advance six runners.

Sid Bream was particularly fooled by the Twins’ starter and winner, Jack Morris, in the sixth inning when he stranded runners on first and third by taking a called third strike. The Braves trailed by 4-1 at the time, and a hit could have changed the game.

“He was throwing me everything away . . . and then shot a fastball inside on me,” Bream said. “He just froze me.”

Bream wasn’t the only one who was stopped in his tracks.

Olson was victimized by three stolen bases in four attempts, giving him a 7% success ratio against runners (three for 37) since Aug. 30.

“At least I threw out one guy,” he said.

Getting only five singles in seven innings against Morris, the offense still doesn’t know how he did it. The Braves’ postseason slump continues, with runs in only five of their last 44 innings.

“Morris threw this one pitch up there, it was a slow changeup I think, like an eephus pitch, I said, ‘Where did that come from?’ ” Hunter said. “I’ve never seen him use it before, and nobody warned us about it. Must have come out of his back pocket.”

Leibrandt felt like crawling into somebody’s back pocket after giving up four runs and seven hits in four innings. The most noticeable thing about his struggle was that it was watched by probable Cy Young Award winner Tom Glavine, who could have started Saturday but was pushed back to today.

Leibrandt didn’t see anything wrong with Manager Bobby Cox’s decision.

“We have stuck to this rotation all year, and really, I did good for four innings and bad for one,” Leibrandt said. “And now we have the probable Cy Young winner in Game 2. I’ll take my chances with him.”

That seemed to be the Braves’ only consolation Saturday. They are trailing one game to none, but neither Glavine, Steve Avery nor John Smoltz has pitched yet.

“And we lost the first game of the playoffs in Pittsburgh, and that didn’t seem to bother us,” David Justice said.

But for now, their plight was best summed up in a banner that shadowed right fielder Justice for most of the game, until Twin officials had it removed.

It read: “Jane and Ted’s Bogus Adventure.”