Phillies Finally Nail It Down in 10th, 4-3 : NL Game 5: After the Braves are allowed to come back again, center fielder homers for victory.

Lenny Dykstra, dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, stepped out of the clubhouse into a mob of reporters, hugged his wife and began the walk toward the interview room. On the way, he reached into his back pocket, took out a cigarette, had a couple of puffs, then went inside to face the cameras.

Dykstra, former misfit, finally fits somewhere. On his team, the Philadelphia Phillies, he can dress the way he wants, smoke if he wants, and do what he wants. As long as he keeps doing what he has all year--win games.

The guy they call “Nails” came through again Monday, when he hit a home run against Mark Wohlers in the 10th inning to give the Phillies a 4-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves and a 3-2 lead in this best-of-seven National League playoff series. The Phillies, who were a longshot to beat the Braves, are now one victory away from the World Series, and the two chances they have to win the pennant will come at home, beginning Wednesday.

“Lenny is a red-light player, when it’s on, he gets the job done,” Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi said. “He’s been doing this for our club all year.”

Dykstra has been doing this for some time, but until recently, few noticed. He did it seven years ago Monday, when he hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the New York Mets a Game 3 playoff victory over the Houston Astros.

“I expect to do it now,” Dykstra said. “Back in ‘86, I was just a kid, kind of in La-La Land. I was younger and I just wanted to contribute. But now I’m one of the guys, my teammates count on me. Now I am what Keith Hernandez was, what Gary Carter was then. That’s my role now.”

Dykstra saved his team from wasting another superb performance by Curt Schilling, who struck out nine while holding the Braves scoreless through eight innings. Schilling took a 3-0 lead into the ninth before it all started to unravel, and not because of him. Next thing you knew, Kim Batiste had made another error; Schilling was on the bench burying his head in a towel; Mitch Williams was on the mound, and three Braves had crossed the plate to tie the score and send it into extra innings for the second time in five games.

“Hey, it don’t matter how we win as long as when the last three outs are recorded, we are the ones shaking hands,” said John Kruk, who doubled in the Phillies’ first run in the first inning against Steve Avery.

Schilling retired nine in a row before the ninth inning, when he threw four consecutive balls to Jeff Blauser to lead off the inning. But he was doing well to get that far, he said. He hadn’t felt well warming up in the bullpen, and struggled some in the first two innings. The Braves hit a couple of balls hard then, but were stopped by the defense of Kevin Stocker and outfielders Wes Chamberlain and, yes, Pete Incaviglia.

“Without those plays, we don’t win the game,” Schilling said.

Chamberlain made a great play on a drive off of the right-center field wall by Fred McGriff in the first inning. His throw to Stocker was relayed perfectly to Darren Daulton, who tagged Jeff Blauser out trying to score from first.

“We have been there enough to know what can happen,” said Mark Lemke, who struck out in the ninth inning against Williams with the winning run on third base after his drive down the left field line went foul by inches.

“In ‘91, we were down, 3-2, and took it to seven games. In ‘92, we were up, 3-2, and went to seven games. There is no reason to panic, no reason to look ahead or look back to what’s happened. We need to focus on Game 6.”

The Braves struggled for the second time against Schilling, who now has 19 strikeouts in the series and an earned run average of 1.69. In Game 1, Schilling held the Braves to two runs and struck out 10. He came out after eight innings with a 3-2 lead, then Williams went in, Batiste made an error, the Braves tied the score and the Phillies won in 10 innings.

Avery held the Phillies to four hits and one earned run through seven innings. The Phillies scored in the fourth inning after Ron Gant misplayed Incaviglia’s drive to the left field wall.

Schilling did not want to leave the game, but by the seventh inning, he said he was spent. “In the eighth inning, Darren told me to reach back, so I did,” Schilling said.

In the ninth, with Blauser on first after a walk and none out, the crowd of 52,032 on its feet at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, Schilling had Gant down 1-and-2. But Gant was patient, and Schilling was missing low. With a full count, Gant lined a grounder to Batiste, who easily backhanded the ball, saw that Blauser had almost reached second base, and prepared to make the throw to first. But when he reached to take the ball out of his glove, he dropped it, as he had in Game 1. The runners were safe.

Batiste walked up to Schilling and gave him the ball.

“I told him not to worry about it, we still had a 3-0 lead,” Batiste said. “And he told me not to worry about it.”

But Fregosi was worried about it, and Schilling was gone.

“I said to Darren, ‘He can’t take me out of this game,’ ” Schilling said. “And Darren said to me, ‘I think he can.’ ”

As Williams warmed up on the mound, Schilling wrapped a towel over his head and stared at the ground. “I can’t tell you what I was thinking, so many things were going through my mind,” Schilling said. “I kept thinking Mitch was going to get us out of it, that Mitch would keep us in the game. He’s done it all year long.”

McGriff and Francisco Cabrera followed with run-scoring singles and David Justice had a sacrifice fly to tie the score. With Terry Pendleton on third, Lemke struck out on an off-speed curve.

“I came within inches of the game-winning hit, Fred came within inches of getting a home run and Jeff came within inches of scoring a run,” Lemke said. “It’s just that you don’t want all the inches to go against you. “