WORLD SERIES / ATLANTA BRAVES vs. MINNESOTA TWINS : Puckett Sends It All the Way : Game 6: His home run in the 11th beats the Braves, 4-3, forcing Game 7. But he also makes a key catch and drives in two more runs. Smoltz will face Morris tonight.

Chili Davis’ words to Kirby Puckett were nearly drowned out by the roaring crowd and the blaring music that turned the Metrodome into a wall of sound Saturday night. But Davis’ advice wasn’t lost on him.

As Puckett prepared to open the bottom of the 11th inning against Atlanta left-hander Charlie Leibrandt, Davis advised Puckett to restrain his free-swinging tendencies and to force Leibrandt into making a pitch above the knees.

“He said, ‘Make Leibrandt get the ball up,’ ” Puckett said. “I turned around after I took the first one, and Chili nodded like, ‘Yeah, that’s it.’ ”

Puckett found Leibrandt’s fourth pitch, a high changeup, more to his liking, and he hit it into the left-field seats for a 4-3 victory that will take the World Series to a seventh game tonight at the Metrodome.

Puckett, the most valuable player in Minnesota’s American League playoff victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, enjoyed a singular evening that kept alive the Twins’ hopes of a second World Series championship in five years and postponed, for at least one day, the Braves’ hopes of winning their franchise’s first title since 1957 and first ever in Atlanta.

Puckett’s first-inning triple scored Chuck Knoblauch with Minnesota’s first run, and he scored the second when Shane Mack ended a 15-at-bat World Series drought with a single against starter Steve Avery. After the Braves pulled even in the fifth, on Terry Pendleton’s two-run home run against Scott Erickson, Puckett restored their lead with a sacrifice fly that scored Dan Gladden. In between, he scaled the fence in center to catch Ron Gant’s fly ball and rob the Atlanta center fielder of extra bases and a run batted in.

“I’m just glad it’s over. I feel like I went 15 rounds with Evander Holyfield,” Puckett said.

“This game, I’ll never forget right here. It’s pretty awesome. Our backs were against the wall. If we didn’t win, we would have had to go home.

“I’ve never felt so drained in my life. But we’ve got to do it one more time.”

In a series contested closely in every game but the Braves’ 14-5 Game 5 runaway, Saturday’s performances matched the previous standards for excitement.

“It’s been a great series. Too bad somebody’s got to lose,” Minnesota shortstop Greg Gagne said. “To go right down to the last day of the season, that’s incredible.”

Atlanta’s John Smoltz, who grew up a Tiger fan in Detroit, will oppose one of his childhood heroes, Jack Morris, tonight.

“I didn’t think there was any way possible,” Smoltz said of the matchup, which will take place with each pitcher having only three days’ rest. In previous starts on short rest, Smoltz was 1-2 in five chances and gave up 17 earned runs in 25 innings. However, he has won each of his last eight decisions, including postseason play, and hasn’t lost since Aug. 20.

Morris, 36, is 3-0 in four career World Series starts and 6-1 for his career in postseason play with the Tigers and Twins. He also is 13-3 in 18 starts at the Metrodome this season.

“I’ve learned one thing,” Smoltz said, “that you have to put personal goals and personal challenges aside in situations like this and just try to pitch your normal game.”

Even when it’s far from a normal game. “This is a situation I’ve played out a lot in my mind when I was younger. I’ll be like a little kid out there,” said Smoltz, who won 14 games for the Braves this season before winning two in the playoffs--including the seventh game against Pittsburgh.

“Naturally, I was hoping that I wouldn’t have to do this and we’d win it (Saturday). But I look on it as a challenge.”

The Braves’ comebacks in the fifth and seventh innings made it seem as though there might be no need for a seventh game.

They left runners on base in each of the first four innings before getting to the Twins’ 20-game winner in the fifth. Rafael Belliard led off with an infield hit but was forced at second by Lonnie Smith. He scored ahead of Pendleton, who hit Erickson’s first pitch 418 feet to center field.

“Scotty did a very, very good job,” Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said. “His velocity was up and his ball was sinking. . . . Mr. Pendleton was waiting on some pitches and (Erickson) got himself into a situation where he got the ball up and (Pendleton) plastered it. That’s why he’s an MVP candidate. Other than that, Scotty did real well.”

The Twins gave Erickson a 3-2 lead in the fifth after Gladden walked, stole second, took third on Knoblauch’s fly ball to right and scored easily on Puckett’s fly ball to center.

“He’s one of the impact players of the game, and when you’re an impact player, stuff like that happens,” Kelly said of Puckett. “The triple got us started, he had a sacrifice fly and he played a superlative game on offense and defense, no question about it.”

The lead he provided evaporated in the seventh. Erickson was relieved by Mark Guthrie after giving up a leadoff single to Mark Lemke, and Lemke scored on a wild pitch, Pendleton’s single to deep second and Gant’s grounder to shortstop.

“I was trying to go as hard as I could for as long as I could,” Erickson said.

Solid relief pitching by the Twins’ Carl Willis and Rick Aguilera carried the game to extra innings.

“I finally did something I said I was going to do,” Puckett said of his promise to lay off bad pitches. “I’m such an aggressive swinger. A lot of times I tell myself I’m going to swing at strikes, and then I swing at anything that’s close.”

If there’s any edge now, it might belong to the Twins, who have won all seven World Series games they have played at the Metrodome, including the seventh game against St. Louis in 1987, and 10 of the 11 they have played at the dome in postseason play.

That doesn’t intimidate the Braves.

“We’re all right. We’ll be back (tonight),” Manager Bobby Cox said. “(The Braves) are a little down right now because things didn’t go our way.”

Bringing a World Series championship the Twins’ way will be Morris’ responsibility tonight.

“Whatever Jack does is going to be good enough for me,” Kelly said. “He’s done more than carry the load.”

Said Morris: “I’m ready to pitch. I don’t know of any pitcher who doesn’t dream of the opportunity to pitch in a situation like this. I’m looking forward to it.”

* OBITUARY: Bill Bevens, who came within one out of pitching a no-hitter against the Dodgers in the 1947 World Series, is dead at 75. C10

* GAME 7: The Atlanta Braves look ahead to the game of their lives. C10

* ROSS NEWHAN: C11

* BASEBALL REPORT: C11