BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : WORLD SERIES

Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said that right fielder Shane Mack, benched after going hitless in 15 at-bats, probably will return to the lineup tonight.

“In all fairness, I should probably put Shane back in there. The kid’s had such a fine season,” Kelly said of the former UCLA standout, who batted .310 this season. “I really don’t want it to end on a bad note.”

Asked what their expectations were before the Braves’ season started, pitcher Steve Avery and right fielder David Justice had different ideas.

“I thought we’d have a pretty good team,” Justice said. “We solidified our team at the corners. I was playing first (base) and was terrible, and Jim Presley was at third and he didn’t have much range. The additions of Sid (Bream) and Terry (Pendleton) and Rafael (Belliard) helped us so tremendously, and we have one of the best pitching staffs in baseball.”

Avery’s hopes weren’t lofty. “I thought we’d be a little over .500,” he said.

Kelly doesn’t expect Wednesday’s 14-5 loss to affect his team tonight. “It gets a little embarrassing after a while, but in general, players in somewhere between five and seven minutes have forgotten about the game,” he said. “You ask them seven minutes after, and they’ve forgotten the score.”

Neither team worked out Friday. The Metrodome was unavailable because of a football game between the University of Minnesota and the University of Michigan Friday night. . . . Tonight’s first pitch will be thrown by Twin coach Tony Oliva, a former rookie of the year and batting champion with the Twins. . . . The Braves set a record in Game 5 with 34 total bases on nine singles, two doubles, three triples and three home runs. The record was 32, set by the New York Yankees against the St. Louis Cardinals in 1928 and matched by the Yankees against the Chicago Cubs in 1932. . . . The Twins’ bullpen, impeccable in the playoffs and the first two World Series games, has given up 13 earned runs and 15 hits in its last 7 1/3 innings.