WORLD SERIES : ATLANTA BRAVES vs. MINNESOTA TWINS : Brave Ending After 12 Innings : Game 3: Justice manages to score on Lemke’s two-out single for 5-4 victory over Twins. A record 42 players take part.

When David Justice had slid across home plate on his back, when the Atlanta Braves had finally dragged a victory out of what felt like four hours of wrestling, Mark Lemke did what most everyone else in town was doing at 12:42 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

He leaped, straight up, feet together, three times. He is only 5 feet 9, but it was as if he was trying to touch the stars.

As far as the people dancing in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium were concerned, he did.

Clinching the second-longest game in World Series history, Lemke averted a potentially devastating night for the Braves in the 12th inning by lining Rick Aguilera’s two-out fastball to left field to score Justice from second base and give Atlanta a 5-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins before 50,878.

After spending several innings on the verge of a three-games-to-none deficit, the Braves have a chance to even the Series in Game 4 tonight when John Smoltz faces the Twins’ Jack Morris.

“As long as (Justice) touched third base,” Lemke said, “I was happy.”

This city, which waited 25 years to play host to its first World Series game, was hysterical. Long after Lemke’s single, which came after Justice hit a one-out single to right field and stole second base, the fans remained in the stadium, bouncing and singing by their seats.

“I think we’re all thinking, ‘When are we going to get out of this thing where we only win close games?’ ” Lemke said. “I think all of us, for once, would like to get a big lead and hold on.”

The Braves took a 4-1 lead after five innings, but the Twins came back against two of the Braves’ best, Steve Avery and Alejandro Pena, on a home run by Kirby Puckett in the seventh and a two-run pinch-homer by Chili Davis in the eighth. In the process, they broke Avery’s 16 1/3-inning postseason scoreless streak.

“It felt like we had a little bit of destiny,” Twin reliever Mark Guthrie said.

But then neither team, despite putting runners on base, could come up with a big hit.

The teams combined to use a World Series record 42 players. They also combined for a Series record 11 pinch-hitters, the Twins using a Series record eight of them.

Tom Kelly, the Twins’ manager who laughed at the notion that American League managers have difficulties working under National League rules, used 23 players, also a Series record.

The only two players he had left were Morris and Game 2 starter Kevin Tapani, and Kelly was forced to bat Aguilera with the bases loaded in the 12th.

All of this added up to a game that lasted 4 hours 4 minutes, a Series record for a night game and only nine minutes short of the longest Series game.

“After a while, I didn’t think anybody was going to score,” said Lemke, who nearly gave the Twins a run in the top of the 12th when a ground ball bounced past him at second base for an error.

When asked if he was hoping to make up for that error, Lemke said: “No, but I thought it would be pretty damn good if I did.”

The Braves got out of that inning with a strikeout of Kent Hrbek and Aguilera’s pinch-hit fly out to center.

Then Justice, who earlier homered, hit a one-out single to start the Braves’ final uprising.

After Brian Hunter had flied to center, Justice stole second on an 0-and-2 pitch to Greg Olson, a daring move by Manager Bobby Cox. “He was green-lighted even earlier,” Cox said. “We wanted to get something going.”

Olson then walked, bringing up Lemke, who had one hit in seven previous Series at-bats. During the regular season, he batted .234 with 23 runs batted in and is known mostly for his defense and work ethic.

“He’s the original dirt player,” Cox said.

After taking a ball and fouling off a pitch, Lemke lined an outside offering to the opposite field. Justice took off and did not make the same mistake that cost the Braves a victory against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs.

“It was good that I fouled off that pitch, because I had overswung, and it made me realize I was not going to hit a home run,” Lemke said. “After that, I was just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere.”

Dan Gladden, the Twins’ left fielder, caught the ball on one bounce and threw it home on two bounces. But Justice slid home just ahead of catcher Brian Harper’s tag for the win.

“I knew I just had to get a good jump and run as fast as the Lord gave me speed to run,” Justice said. “And I definitely did touch (third base).”

It was the first run scored against the Twins’ bullpen in 32 2/3 consecutive postseason innings dating to the 1987 World Series.

The Twins are still looking for the first road victory in Minnesota history. The last road Series victory by the Twins’ franchise was earned by Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators on Oct. 7, 1925, against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Since then, the Twins/Senators franchise has lost 12 consecutive Series games on the road.

Said Kelly: “I’m not glad we lost, but it was a hell of a ballgame. . . . Bottom line is, we had a couple of chances to get the job done and we didn’t do it.”

A couple?

Besides the 12th, the Twins were frustrated in the eighth inning when Pena struck out both Puckett and Shane Mack with runners on first and third. Minnesota also stranded a runner on second base in the ninth, and runners on first and second in the 10th.

Then the Braves got the job done.

LAB QUIZ: The Twins’ Kelly gets a lesson in the physics of managing. C4

TARNISHED: The hitters turn the tables on the dominance of pitchers. C4