Twins Seeking the Spirit of ’87 : Game 6: That is when Minnesota became the only team to win a Series after losing Games 3-5.

The comforts of home, even the comfort of knowing they have escaped this predicament before, might not be enough for the Minnesota Twins to win the World Series.

Precedent is on their side--they overcame a three-games-to-two deficit in winning the 1987 Series--but recent events would seem to give the advantage to the Atlanta Braves, who need only to win tonight or Sunday at the Metrodome.

The Braves trailed the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League playoffs, 3-2, but rode the left arm of 21-year-old Steve Avery to a series tie, then won the seventh game behind right-hander John Smoltz. Avery will start for the Braves tonight, with Smoltz ready for Sunday should the Twins extend their Metrodome World Series winning streak to seven tonight.

Avery has won seven consecutive decisions, two of them shutouts of the Pirates in which he pitched a playoff-record 16 1/3 consecutive scoreless innings and got help from Alejandro Pena.

Smoltz has won his last eight decisions, two in the league playoffs, and has not lost since Aug. 15.

“We’re rested and we’re confident,” said Avery, who got no decision in seven innings against the Twins last Tuesday in Game 3 of the Series. “We’re just looking to win one game. I don’t care which one, but the first one would be nice.”

Right fielder David Justice, who drove in five runs in Atlanta’s 14-5 victory Thursday, said the Braves would like to avoid a seventh game but would not fear it. Of the seven teams that have lost the first two games and won Games 3, 4 and 5, six have won the Series. The St. Louis Cardinals, in 1987, were the exception, thanks to the Twins.

“We feel confident we can win one of two,” Justice said. “I personally feel confident we can win (tonight). We get them down and we’ll apply the pressure, like in Game 7 against Pittsburgh. When we got Pittsburgh down (by scoring three runs in the first inning), everybody was saying, ‘We have to keep putting the pressure on,’ and we did.”

The pressure of preserving Minnesota’s hopes falls on right-hander Scott Erickson, who was 20-8 during the regular season but hasn’t gotten out of the fifth inning in either of his two postseason starts. Should Erickson prevail tonight, Jack Morris will start Sunday.

Erickson has scarcely resembled the dominating pitcher he was in the first half of the season, when he threw a 92-m.p.h. fastball that overpowered hitters and a sinker that they beat into the ground. After suffering a strained right elbow in June, he was put on the disabled list, then won eight of his last 13 decisions.

Erickson said Wednesday that he deliberately held back in his Series start last Tuesday after being told he had thrown too hard against Toronto in the playoffs. He added that he wasn’t concerned about radar gun readings of 81 and 82 m.p.h.

“I wouldn’t say I’m confused,” he said. “I’m not worried about my speed. I know I could have thrown a couple of pitches faster, and I was happy with my velocity on a couple of pitches I threw out of the strike zone on 0-and-2 counts.”

Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said he had spoken with Erickson and pitching coach Dick Such to set their strategy and is satisfied with Erickson’s readiness.

Against the Blue Jays, Kelly said, Erickson “was so pumped up on adrenaline he wore himself out. The bottom line is in the World Series, you go out there and throw the ball. To keep himself under control and try to pitch, that’s not going to work, either. He pitched Game 3 and didn’t throw the ball.

“What he has to do is throw the baseball like he knows how and he’ll be fine. He needs to rear back and let it fire.”

Chili Davis, who shares a home with Erickson, planned to help restoke Erickson’s competitive fires.

“My roomie won 20. I believe in him,” said Davis, who will return to his designated hitter slot tonight, having started Game 5 in right field. “I don’t know if he still believes in himself. I’m going to sit down (today) with him and have a talk.”

But all the talk in the world won’t help if Minnesota’s offense doesn’t wake up. The Twins are batting .218 in the Series, 51 points worse than the Braves. Kirby Puckett, the AL playoff MVP, and Kent Hrbek are a combined six for 37 in the Series. Shane Mack is hitless in 15 at-bats and Dan Gladden is batting .190.

Kelly credited the Braves’ pitching instead of criticizing Hrbek and Puckett.

“Sure, you’d like them to hit, but in this game you win with everybody contributing,” he said. “Justice has knocked in some runs for them, but they’ve got (Mark) Lemke and (Rafael) Belliard coming through, too. We need everybody coming through. In (Tom) Glavine, Smoltz and Avery, we’re not facing any slouches.”

Remembering the Twins’ comeback against the Cardinals in 1987 will help his team tonight, Kelly said. So, too, will the Metrodome fans.

“It’s really the only thing I have to fall back on,” Kelly said of his previous Series experience. “The players talk about it. . . . Executives for CBS want it to go seven, and I’m just trying to cooperate.”

The Braves, impatient to win the franchise’s first World Series since the Milwaukee Braves of 1957, don’t want to wait for a seventh game. They don’t think they will have to wait, either, not after their offensive rampage in Game 5.

“To see the guys swing the bats like they were was scary,” Avery said. “If they swing the bats like that again, they’re going to win the ballgame for me.”