Twins Win Full Classic in 10 : Game 7: Larkin’s pinch single beats the Braves, 1-0. Morris goes the distance, giving up seven hits, and is voted the most valuable player.

They didn’t want their night to end, not even after their eardrums were rattled and their nerves jangled during a World Series Game 7 that was scoreless for longer than any before it.

The Minnesota Twins could have run off into the night with their World Series trophy, but instead they swarmed back onto the field to hug their wives and each other and to take a victory lap around the Metrodome. The 1-0 victory that brought them their second World Series championship in five years belonged as much to their fans as to them, a debt they acknowledged with a joyous run around the warning track.

“Man, it’s unbelievable,” Kirby Puckett said, surveying the scene around him Sunday night. “I can’t even find the words to explain it. These fans have just been super. Both teams had opportunities to win it and I don’t think the Atlanta Braves have anything to be ashamed about.

“There aren’t any losers. We’re all winners.”

The Twins were the biggest winners of all, winning the second extra-inning seventh game in World Series history when pinch-hitter Gene Larkin’s single to left-center field against Alejandro Pena sent Dan Gladden home with the run that ended the teams’ third extra-inning game, a Series record.

“I knew a fastball was coming,” said Larkin, a reserve outfielder-first baseman.

“I just wanted to make contact and hit a fly ball. As soon as I hit it, I knew the game was over and that we could relax and enjoy the world championship. It was a great Series.”

Minnesota starter Jack Morris, voted the Series’ most valuable player after becoming the first starter to pitch into extra innings since Tom Seaver pitched 10 for the New York Mets in Game 4 of the 1969 World Series, led the charge onto the field even before Gladden crossed the plate. Twin Manager Tom Kelly had been inclined to take Morris out after nine innings, but Morris insisted on finishing, earning his second victory to go with a no-decision in the Series.

“I had some left,” Morris said of the 10th. “Concentration wasn’t a problem because of the situation. This is a game you dream about.

“A lot of people should feel proud in Minnesota today because I sure do,” said Morris, who grew up across the Mississippi River in St. Paul and signed with the Twins as a free agent last winter. “It was a classic.”

The meeting of the only two major league teams to go from last place one year to first the next was a classic. Four games were decided on the last pitch, a Series record, and the five one-run decisions made this the closest Series since 1975, when five games were decided by a single run.

“The Braves are a heck of a ball team,” Morris said. “They’re also winners.”

But the Braves didn’t feel much like winners Sunday, not after seeing the 3-2 Series lead they had taken at home by sweeping Games 3, 4 and 5 evaporate under the lights of the Metrodome.

“It’s disappointing to end this way,” second baseman Mark Lemke said, “but it won’t take long before you realize you had a great season. Each and every one of us on this ballclub is going to be able to walk home and look in the mirror tomorrow and say, ‘I gave it everything I had.’ ”

They gave the Twins more than a few nervous moments Sunday, particularly in the eighth inning. Lonnie Smith led off with a single to right field and should have scored when Terry Pendleton doubled to left-center. Smith, who had left first base on a steal attempt before the hit, apparently lost track of the ball. He was fooled by second baseman Chuck Knoblauch’s decoy into thinking he might be involved in a double play, and stopped after rounding second. He then could go only as far as third.

“That’s my first instinct in a play like that, to (decoy) them,” Knoblauch said. “Our instinct is to pretend like we’re turning a double play. Luckily he stood there, even though the ball bounced off the wall. He had no idea where the ball was.”

The situation was still promising for the Braves, but Ron Gant hit a dribbler to first baseman Kent Hrbek for the first out. Kelly came to the mound to confer with Morris, and they decided to walk David Justice to load the bases for Sid Bream.

The Atlanta first baseman fouled back two pitches before grounding to Hrbek, who fielded the ball and threw home for the force on Smith. Catcher Brian Harper completed the double play with a throw to first that easily beat Bream.

“I just wanted to get the ball down so we’d have a chance at a ground ball,” said Morris, who is 4-0 in five Series starts with the Tigers and Twins and is 7-1 in postseason play. “Fortunately for us, he hit the ball right to Kent.”

The Twins wasted a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the inning against right-hander John Smoltz. Singles by pinch-hitter Randy Bush and Knoblauch sandwiched around a fly ball to center by Gladden put runners at first and third, ending Smoltz’s stint. The Braves summoned left-hander Mike Stanton with right-handed hitting Kirby Puckett up next, but the mystery of that move was resolved when Puckett was walked intentionally to bring up Hrbek.

Hrbek, hitless in his last 15 at-bats, worked the count to 2-and-1. But Hrbek hit Stanton’s next pitch softly toward second, where Mark Lemke snared it and jogged a few steps to second to double off Knoblauch.

“We had several opportunities to put the game away, but we didn’t,” Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox said. “John Smoltz pitched great. The bullpen did an excellent job. We just didn’t get the job done.”

The Twins completed their journey from worst to first in the 10th. Gladden led off with a blooper to left-center field and never hesitated as he dashed to second. Knoblauch moved him over with a sacrifice that had to be played by third baseman Pendleton, and the Braves walked Puckett and Hrbek intentionally to load the bases. Kelly then sent up Larkin, who hit Pena’s first pitch to him over Brian Hunter’s head and onto the warning track, as Smith watched helplessly over his shoulder.

“Perseverance,” Morris said. “We just didn’t want to quit. Somehow, we just figured out a way to win the thing.”

They figured out, without any help, how to celebrate as they remained the only franchise to win a Series without winning a game on the road. They did the same thing in 1987, and have now won all eight Series games they have played at the Metrodome and 11 of 12 they have played there in postseason competition. Home teams have won 24 of the last 30 Series games since Game 5 of the 1986 Series, a statistic largely dependent on the Twins’ dome success.

“This is beautiful. Just beautiful,” former Angel Chili Davis said as he hugged teammates and relatives on the mound. Around him, players’ wives scooped up handfuls of dirt and wrapped them in Homer Hankies to take home as souvenirs, flashbulbs popped and Brian Harper’s two young children ran after their father as he raced around the Metrodome outfield.

“We’re the champs!” reliever Steve Bedrosian shouted, to no one in particular.

Puckett had the last word: “All you guys have tomorrow off. Take the day off.”

* THEORIES ABOUND: Lonnie Smith refused to discuss his baserunning miscue. C12

* A GOOD SHOW: Fans in Minnesota and Atlanta were proud of both teams. C14

Taking It to the Limit

A list of World Series seventh games.

Date Opponents and Score Oct. 16, 1909 Pittsburgh Pirates 8, Detroit Tigers 0 Oct. 16, 1912* Boston Red Sox 3, New York Giants 2, 10 innings (1 tie) Oct. 10, 1924* Washington Senators 4, New York Giants 3, 12 innings Oct. 15, 1925 Pittsburgh Pirates 9, Washington Senators 7 Oct. 10, 1926 St. Louis Cardinals 3, New York Yankees 2 Oct. 10, 1931 St. Louis Cardinals 4, Philadelphia Athletics 2 Oct. 9, 1934 St. Louis Cardinals 11, Detroit Tigers 0 Oct. 8, 1940 Cincinnati Reds 2, Detroit Tigers 1 Oct. 10 1945 Detroit Tigers 9, Chicago Cubs 3 Oct. 15, 1946 St. Louis Cardinals 4, Boston Red Sox 3 Oct. 6, 1947 New York Yankees 5, Brooklyn Dodgers 2 Oct. 7, 1952 New York Yankees 4, Brooklyn Dodgers 2 Oct. 4, 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers 2, New York Yankees 0 Oct. 10, 1956 New York Yankees 9, Brooklyn Dodgers 0 Oct. 10, 1957 Milwaukee Braves 5, New York Yankees 0 Oct. 9, 1958 New York Yankees 6, Milwaukee Braves 2 Oct. 13, 1960* Pittsburgh Pirates 10, New York Yankees 9 Oct. 16, 1962 New York Yankees 1, San Francisco Giants 0 Oct. 15, 1964 St. Louis Cinals 7, New York Yankees 5 Oct. 14, 1965 Dodgers 2, Minnesota Twins 0 Oct. 12, 1967 St. Louis Cardinals 7, Boston Red Sox 2 Oct. 10, 1968 Detroit Tigers 4, St. Louis Cardinals 1 Oct. 17, 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates 2, Baltimore Orioles 1 Oct. 22, 1972 Oakland Athletics 3, Cincinnati Reds 2 Oct. 21, 1973 Oakland Athletics 5, New York Mets 2 Oct. 22, 1975** Cincinnati Reds 4, Boston Red Sox 3 Oct. 17, 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates 4, Baltimore Orioles 1 Oct. 20, 1982 St. Louis Cardinals 6, Milwaukee Brewers 3 Oct. 27, 1985 Kansas City Royals 11, St. Louis Cardinals 0 Oct. 27, 1986 New York Mets 8, Boston Red Sox 5 Oct. 25, 1987 Minnesota Twins 4, St. Louis Cardinals 2 Oct. 27, 1991 Minnesota Twins 1, Atlanta Braves 0, 10 innings

*--decided on last swing of game **--decided in top of last inning