Smith at a Loss to Explain Blunder : Braves: He inexplicably slows at second base and can’t score run that might have won World Series.

The ball shot off Terry Pendleton’s bat, soared between two outfielders, landed at the base of the left-center field wall and the Atlanta Braves thought, this is it.

They celebrated in the dugout.

“I said, ‘That’s a run,’ ” Brian Hunter recalled. “Everybody in the dugout saw the same thing. That ball was over the outfielders’ head, and Lonnie (Smith) was scoring from first base.”

They celebrated in the bullpen.

“We figured, ‘Lonnie is going to score,’ ” relief pitcher Mike Stanton said. “We were finally going to get a run.”

They celebrated everywhere except on second base. That is where Lonnie Smith, who was running from first base on the play and should have scored easily, inexplicably slowed down.

By the time he realized the ball was bouncing around on the warning track, he only had time to sprint to third. He never got any farther, as Minnesota Twins’ pitcher Jack Morris worked out of the eighth-inning jam by getting Ron Gant to ground out and Sid Bream to hit into a double play.

The Twins eventually won Game 7 of the World Series, 1-0, in 10 innings.

And the Braves nearly lost their minds wondering what happened to Lonnie Smith.

Did he lose the ball in the lights? Did he lose the ball in the white roof? Did he lose something in his brain?

Surely he wasn’t fooled by a harmless fake from Twins’ shortstop Greg Gagne and second baseman Chuck Knoblauch, who acted as if they were turning a double play even though they did not have the baseball.

What happened, Lonnie?

“Were you watching the game?” Smith asked afterward. “That’s a stupid (bleeping) question.”

And that was the only answer he would give.

Six times he was asked about the play, questions which haunted even his teammates, and six times Smith ignored the questions.

After cursing the media while his young teammates stared uncomfortably, Smith stalked out of the Metrodome’s visiting clubhouse late Sunday.

What remained, other than the shattered dreams of a team that ended its wondrous season with red eyes and looks of disbelief, were theories.

--Theory No. 1: Smith lost the ball amid the white lights and roof.

“That’s what happened,” Pendleton claimed. “He was running on the play, a straight steal, and so he could not see the ball off the bat. And when you don’t see the ball off the bat in this place, forget it.”

Pendleton added: “So he looked up and tried to find the ball, and couldn’t. I realized this when I was running into second and I saw him between second and third.”

Hunter supported this explanation by saying he heard Smith tell somebody he lost the ball.

“That was what was going around in the dugout,” Hunter said. “He just lost it.”

This theory is disproved by the fact that outfielders Dan Gladden and Kirby Puckett both had their backs turned to the infield while chasing down the ball. Surely he saw the outfielders.

“When you see backs turned like that, you know there is no way they can catch it,” Hunter said.

--Theory No. 2: Gagne and Knoblauch pulled off the deke of the decade, acting as if they were forcing Smith out at second base.

“That’s my first instinct on a play like that, to deke 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 stood at second base. He had no idea where the ball was.”

This theory is disproved by the fact that Smith slowed down just before reaching second base. If he was deked, he would have slid.

And the entire time, he was looking toward the outfield.

“I saw them trying to deke him, but that didn’t mean anything,” Pendleton said. “That had no effect.”

--Theory No. 3: Smith broke his leg between first and third.

“Something sure made him stop,” Mark Lemke said.

This theory was disproved after the game when Smith was able to walk quickly away from questions that will be asked in Atlanta until next spring.

The Braves thought there were other reasons they lost, such as stranding eight runners in scoring position in five of the first eight innings.

But amid their despair, they also realized that in many ways, in one of the most dramatic World Series ever, they were winners.

“When I was on first base (in the fifth inning), Kent Hrbek said something to me that really made sense,” Lemke said. “He said he wished that they could have just cut the trophy in half. When we went 0-0 after nine, that’s what they should have done.”

Lemke, who batted .417 in the Series, added: “Late in the game I was just looking at the Twins, and they were looking back at me, and we were all shaking our heads. This was just unbelievable. This was the best game I have ever been involved in, ever.”

John Smoltz, who pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings, said it was the most incredible athletic experience of his young life. “I was just hoping that we would score one run. If we could score just one run we’d win, and I was determined not to break,” Smoltz said.

“Then they would get runners on base and we would get out of it, and I would think, ‘We’ve got to win this game.’ But they just weren’t willing to budge.”

When Smoltz was removed from the game in the eighth inning, he paused on the mound to stare at the ceiling for several seconds. “I was looking up in disbelief,” he said. “I just could not believe this game.”