Justice Triumphs, So Do Braves : NL Game 4: Hitter wins duel with Drabek and helps put Atlanta one game away from World Series, 6-4.

For nine pitches they sparred, Doug Drabek spinning the ball and David Justice swinging at it from his stirrups.

For nine pitches Saturday, the National League championship series was suspended to watch a confrontation that defines baseball in October.

Drabek would throw a ball inches outside the plate. Justice would hit a foul inches off the end of the bat. Ball. Foul. Foul. Ball.

When the duel ended, pieces of that black bat were scattered across the infield. Not coincidentally, so were pieces of the hopes of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Justice’s run-scoring single during the fifth inning gave the Atlanta Braves a 3-3 tie that they broke moments later against the rattled Pirates, who moved to the brink of collapse after the Braves scored a 6-4 victory in Game 4.

With a victory tonight, the Braves, with a three-games-to-one lead, can become the first National League team since the 1977-78 Dodgers to win consecutive pennants.

“We want to come out and get a quick lead,” Justice said. “Now that would break them.”

Steve Avery, who is 3-0 with a 1.59 earned-run average in two postseasons against the Pirates, can’t wait for tonight’s start.

“I had a chance to be on the mound when we won a World Series last year, but it didn’t work out,” said Avery, who will face veteran Bob Walk. “Now I want another chance to be the one holding that ball when we win a championship. That is everybody’s dream.”

The Pirates thought they were dreaming when third baseman Jeff King threw wide of the plate trying to get Jeff Blauser on Brian Hunter’s grounder during the fifth. That gave the Braves a 4-3 lead they never lost.

And the Pirates could barely watch when Barry Bonds ended their hopes with another embarrassing postseason plate appearance.

After Andy Van Slyke had closed the gap to 6-4 with a run-scoring double with one out in the seventh, Bonds struck out on four pitches against reliever Mike Stanton.

After swinging at the last pitch, making him hitless in his last 27 at-bats with runners on base in the postseason, Bonds kicked the dirt and stalked back to the dugout amid boos from the 57,163 at Three Rivers Stadium.

Later, when asked about his .091 average during these playoffs and a .143 career postseason average in 56 at-bats, Bonds glared.

“Don’t come over here, man,” he said to reporters before banging his fist on the side of a locker.

Most of his teammates appeared more dazed than angry. They had blown a 3-2 lead after four innings, they had cost themselves two runs with poor fielding plays, and they had struck out 14 times against three pitchers.

“We looked like a good team for five innings . . . then we looked like it was Game 1 and 2,” said Van Slyke, whose team is batting .205 in the series while the pitching staff has a 6.35 ERA.

Even if the Braves somehow do not win this series--two teams have actually come back to win pennants after trailing 3-1--they are certainly more courageous.

They were led offensively by Otis Nixon. He was in a drug rehabilitation center during last year’s playoffs, but on Saturday he tied league playoff records with four hits and five hits over two days.

And they were led from the mound by John Smoltz who, hours earlier, had received a cortisone shot in his sore lower back.

Smoltz gave up three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings to win his fourth playoff start in four tries. The four victories tie a National League career record.

Smoltz not only stranded six runners during the first three innings, he also drove in a run with a single, scored a run, and even stole second base without a slide against inattentive Randy Tomlin.

“Honestly, I don’t think he even thought I was going to steal with everything that’s gone on in the last week with me,” Smoltz said. “I was really surprised at how good I felt.”

Smoltz was not even shaken after Orlando Merced doubled into the left-center field gap to give the Pirates a 3-2 lead during the third. Of the next 13 batters, the only one who reached base was there because of an intentional walk.

His teammates rewarded Smoltz with a fifth-inning rally that started when Nixon singled to center and Blauser singled to right, moving Nixon to third.

Up stepped struggling Terry Pendleton (.167), who struck out, bringing up Justice.

“I swear, I was standing on first thinking, this man is made for this moment,” Blauser said. “I was thinking, he is going to hit a line drive, and I just don’t want it to hit me.”

Said Justice: “I knew if Terry had gone down, it was up to me. And I really wanted it.”

He hit two quick foul balls, then Drabek threw a ball. Then Justice hit another foul, then Drabek threw another ball. After two more fouls and another ball, Justice pulled an inside fastball to right field.

“He finally gave me a pitch that all left-handers love,” Justice said. “All I had to do was drop my hands.”

Drabek, who was immediately removed from the game, said he might have tried too hard.

“He kept fouling off balls and as a pitcher, you keep telling yourself, ‘Keep making the right pitch,’ ” said Drabek, the Pirates’ ace who is 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA in this series. “But I gave him one he could handle.”

Although the Braves appear far more than the Pirates can handle, Van Slyke issued a warning.

“I’ve been on a team that was up 3-games-to-1 in a World Series (1985 St. Louis Cardinals over Kansas City Royals) and we even had the mayor of the city come into the clubhouse and talk to us about a victory parade,” Van Slyke said. “When you see a World Series like that slip through the webbing of your glove, you know nothing is impossible.”

BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN: C10