BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : NL Game 7: Braves beat Pirates, 3-2, with three runs in the ninth, the last two on Cabrera’s single with two out.

A baseball game was powerful enough to leave the National League’s two strongest teams in tears Wednesday night.

The Atlanta Braves ended the night hugging and weeping and running around Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium like awestruck children.

The Pittsburgh Pirates ended it sobbing into their lockers while wondering if they will ever be able to forget.

“They haven’t invented a word to describe this,” said Andy Van Slyke of the Pirates.

The Braves would choose “miracle.” And who could argue.

With three runs in the ninth inning, all charged to Pirate ace Doug Drabek, the Braves took a 3-2 victory in Game 7 of the playoffs, stealing a league championship from the Pirates for a second consecutive season.

“What happened to us tonight is what every boy in this country dreams about,” Brave shortstop Jeff Blauser said.

He must think children are having crazy dreams.

The winning runs were driven in on a two-out single to left field by reserve Francisco Cabrera, who batted once during the playoffs and 10 times during the regular season.

The winning run was scored by Sid Bream, who sprinted home from second base despite slow feet and a heavy brace on his right knee.

“My teammates in the dugout were pushing me to score, they were all slapping me on my back, I could sense it,” Bream said.

They almost didn’t push hard enough. Bream slid home and beat the throw from Barry Bonds by inches.

“I hit the plate, and then Spanky (catcher Mike LaValliere) put on the tag, so I knew I was safe,” Bream said. “Then the umpire called me safe and the next thing I knew, I was getting mugged.”

LaValliere attempted to fake Bream into thinking there would be no throw. But David Justice, who scored the tying run moments earlier, stood behind home plate and motioned for him to slide.

As soon as it was obvious that Bream had won the game, Justice jumped him. As the team and stadium erupted around them, the two men lay on the plate, hugging.

“He was holding on so tight, I think I turned green and blue,” Bream said. “But it was worth it.”

Many of the Pirates, who tied a major league record by losing their third consecutive playoff series, dashed from the field.

But remaining in front of the plate amid the commotion, bending over and staring at the grass, was reliever Stan Belinda.

He took over for a tiring Drabek with none out and the bases loaded in the ninth. He gave up a run-scoring fly ball to Ron Gant, then, one out and one walk later, he yielded the hit to Cabrera.

“I know I’m going to hear about this all winter, I know I’m going to hear about this next year, I know the fans are not going to let me forget,” Belinda said. “I guess I’m just going to have to try to stand tall.”

Belinda is not the only one who should be embarrassed.

The Pirates were within three outs of ending their legacy of failure but could not finish the job because of two other Pirates:

--Manager Jim Leyland, who insisted on leaving Drabek in the game in the ninth even though Drabek had thrown 120 pitches and was obviously tired.

“I know Doug couldn’t help but be tired,” Bream said.

--Jose Lind, among the best fielding second basemen in the league, who misplayed a grounder by Justice that kept the rally going after Terry Pendleton’s leadoff double.

“When I got to first base, (coach) Pat Corrales said, ‘Man, Lind never does that, something is going on here,’ ” said Bream, who followed Justice’s grounder with a walk.

With the bases loaded, Belinda was summoned even though he pitched only one inning in the series.

“I know he had to be having some butterflies,” Bream said.

Up stepped Gant, who was counseled by Pendleton during the pitching change.

“I told him to stand on the plate and swing at the ball,” Pendleton said. “I told him not to back down.”

Gant took the advice and drove in the first run with a fly ball to the warning track in left. After a walk to Damon Berryhill loaded the bases again, Brian Hunter popped to second, setting up Cabrera’s heroics.

Belinda fell behind 2-and-0, then Cabrera hit a long foul ball to left field.

“All of a sudden in the dugout, we looked at each other like, ‘Hey, Frankie is going to hit this guy,’ ” Blauser said. “Don’t ask us how we knew. We just knew.”

Then Cabrera bounced the ball to the right of shortstop Jay Bell, scoring the winning runs.

“I was praying, ‘Oh God, please don’t let Bell catch that ball,’ ” Pendleton said.

Said Cabrera, a former member of the Blue Jays: “I thought, ‘Well, I’ve got a green light, so I have to hit the ball good.’ I thought to myself, ‘We’ve got to win this game because I want to go to Toronto.’ ”

Once the Braves moved their celebration inside, the scene became even more surreal.

Deion Sanders, who is not a favorite of Braves management, poured a pitcher of ice water on John Schuerholz, general manager, and then scampered away.

In the Pirate clubhouse, Leyland was hugging Pittsburgh writers and crying.

“I will not beat myself up trying to figure out what happened,” Drabek said. “I will not sit there all winter and wonder why.”

Before the ninth, Drabek had retired the previous five hitters and had worked out of two jams.

Drabek was saved in the sixth inning when the Braves were hurt by Mark Lemke, who inexplicably got lost on third base, ending a potential bases-loaded rally.

Lemke opened with a single to right field, then Jeff Treadway blooped a single to left.

After pitching coach Ray Miller trotted to the mound for a visit, Otis Nixon bunted the next pitch into the air between the mound and first base. The ball landed between everyone, and Nixon had crossed first base by the time Orlando Merced had picked it up and thrown it.

With the bases loaded and none out, Blauser worked the count to 2-and-1 before hitting a line drive to third baseman Jeff King.

It was a routine out, except, for some reason, Lemke was standing 15 feet down the third-base line. King touched the bag for the double play, leaving Lemke to shake his head as he made the long jog across the diamond to his dugout.

Drabek then ended the inning by retiring Pendleton on a line drive to Bonds.

The Braves threatened again in the seventh inning after Bream hit a one-out double to left-center field and Gant walked after a nine-pitch duel.

But it took Drabek only three pitches to retire Berryhill on a fly ball to left, and pinch-hitter Lonnie Smith on a fly ball to center.

“We played great, but there are 27 outs in this game, and you need all 27,” LaValliere said. “And I guess tonight, we showed that.”