Pirates Win in Knuck of Time : NL Game 3: Wakefield’s complete game gives Pittsburgh a 3-2 victory and chops Braves’ lead to 2-1.

What Tim Wakefield did to the baseball, he has done for the Pittsburgh Pirates, who today are floating.

“I still have goose bumps now,” Gary Redus said late Friday after 56,610 fans had taken their yellow hooks and screams to the parking lot.

A rookie and his knuckleball twirled this playoff in a different direction as Wakefield gave up five hits to the Atlanta Braves in the Pirates’ 3-2 victory in Game 3 of the National League championship series.

With Andy Van Slyke’s sacrifice fly in the seventh inning breaking a 2-2 tie, the Pirates have closed what appeared to be an insurmountable gap to two games to one.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Van Slyke said.

He was speaking not merely of the Pirates victory, which ended a three-game postseason losing streak at Three Rivers Stadium. He was also speaking of the incredible story of his pitcher, who eased a heavy Pirate burden with his fingertips.

Three years ago, Wakefield was a first baseman without a future.

Shortly after 11 p.m. Friday, he was standing behind the mound and pointing to the sky at a pop fly by Sid Bream that ended the first postseason victory by a knuckleball pitcher since the New York Yankees’ Tom Sturdivant in 1956.

When Jay Bell caught the ball, Wakefield’s fists shook and his eyes moistened.

“It’s exciting to finally have a dream come true,” Wakefield said. “I may never have a chance to do this again.”

Or he may have a chance to do it again in 48 hours.

Wakefield, who is not scheduled to start again until Game 6 if necessary, said he could be ready to work again in Game 5 on Sunday.

“If he can guarantee that he will allow just five hits, let’s pitch him Saturday,” Van Slyke said.

Two of the hits were home runs, by Bream and Ron Gant. The other three hits were two doubles and a single. But only four other balls left the infield.

Two of the balls would have left the infield except Wakefield stabbed line drives. And more than two runs would have scored had he not toughened on three important occasions.

“That is the best word for him tonight--tough,” said Jeff Blauser, the Atlanta shortstop who barely missed a two-run home run when his long fly ball down the left-field line was foul by a few feet.

The scare came with Otis Nixon on second base in the eighth inning after a two-out double. Not only did Wakefield not worry about Nixon, who rattled veteran Bob Walk into throwing a grand slam pitch Wednesday, but he also didn’t worry about the foul ball.

“I thought it was just a pop-up,” he said, shrugging. “You can’t let situations like that control your emotions. With the kind of defense we have, I just let them hit it.”

So moments later, Blauser hit a grounder to third baseman Jeff King to end the Braves’ final rally. Wakefield had extracted himself from two earlier jams with double-play grounders, one of which followed a great assist to third base on an attempted sacrifice bunt.

Wakefield became so confident in his knuckleball, which he threw 90% of the time, he even threw it on a full-count pitch to David Justice with one out in the ninth inning. Justice hit a weak fly ball.

At least one notable person couldn’t watch.

“(Catcher Don) Slaught told me that he looked over at me before that pitch to see if I would call a knuckleball, but I was over at the water cooler with my back turned,” Pirate Manager Jim Leyland said.

It was appropriate that Van Slyke won the game for Wakefield with a sacrifice fly against reliever Mike Stanton after earlier hitting a double and scoring against loser Tom Glavine.

Van Slyke and Wakefield, after all, live together. You should have heard what they talked about while driving to work Friday, with Wakefield behind the wheel of Van Slyke’s Porsche because Van Slyke was sick.

“We talked about how fast he was going,” Van Slyke said. “I said, ‘Slow down, A.J.’ ”

Nobody had to say that to Wakefield once he took the mound.

“He came at us with three different speeds tonight,” Blauser said. “All of them were slow.”

Wakefield shrugged and said, “When I pitch, you can put the radar gun back in its case and not worry about it.”

Glavine, who had gone 1-5 in his previous seven starts, was not throwing much harder by the seventh inning.

After the Braves had taken a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning on Bream’s home run, Slaught homered in the fifth.

Then the Pirates took their first lead in the sixth when Jeff King hit a run-scoring double two batters after Van Slyke’s double. The Braves tied the game on Gant’s homer in the seventh, but then Glavine gave it back again.

Glavine had made it past the fifth inning only twice in his last seven starts because of a rib injury, but he stayed in the game after giving up a leadoff single to Redus in the seventh.

Bell knocked the ball down the left-field line for a double, moving Redus to third.

“He threw me a change-up out over the plate for the first time all night,” Bell said.

Glavine finally left. Van Slyke, with a career average of .167 against Stanton, didn’t get a hit, but he didn’t need to.

He fought off a two-strike fastball for a foul, then lofted a ball to right fielder Justice, scoring Redus.

“I just didn’t want to strike out,” Van Slyke said.

Wakefield took care of the rest of the game. He completed a journey that began in 1989 when, as a poor-hitting first baseman, he was scheduled to be released until a minor league coach saw him throwing a knuckleball during infield practice.

“What I kept telling myself out there was, ‘This is your chance,’ ” Wakefield said. “ ‘This is your chance.’ ”

NL REPORT: Bob Walk is scheduled to replace Danny Jackson as the starting pitcher for the Pirates in Game 5. C7