BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Braves Cruising in Auto-Maddux : National League: Pitcher gets home run help in 5-2 victory, good for a 3-0 edge.

The so-called “Buffalo Bills of baseball,” the Atlanta Braves, are returning to another World Series, or so it appears after winning here Friday night against the folding Cincinnati Reds, 5-2, behind more strong pitching from Greg Maddux and home runs from Charlie O’Brien and Chipper Jones.

They have been this far before and failed, but with the National League championship series now three games to none, owner Ted Turner wouldn’t trade his team for Time Warner, straight up. Forget the 1996 Olympics; this could be the year. Atlanta has never won a professional championship in baseball, football, basketball or hockey.

For the best pitcher in baseball, Maddux, there is something personal at stake. Several of the other Braves, yes, have been to a World Series, but Maddux never has. That is why no one finds him high-fiving prematurely.

“We’re not there yet. I don’t really feel like it’s over,” Maddux says, knowing full well that no team has blown a 3-0 series advantage in postseason play.

He hopes that doesn’t sound underconfident.

“I love our chances, don’t get me wrong.”

As well he should. The Braves are playing textbook ball. Their playoff record is 6-1 and there’s a new hero every night. In a scoreless game Friday in the sixth inning before a near-sellout of 51,424, O’Brien, a catcher making his first appearance of this series, cranked a three-run homer to left field. O’Brien, who is 34, has all of 33 home runs in his career.

With Maddux on the mound, three runs felt like 33. For good measure, however, rookie Jones hit a two-run shot in the seventh inning, a few yards from the “Hank Aaron 715” monument.

That left the Reds for dead.

Even the sugar-coated Jones said, “I think that kind of stuck a dagger in their heart.”

Cincinnati scraped together a run in the eighth on one-out singles by Ron Gant, Reggie Sanders (who finally hit the ball!) and Hal Morris, at which point Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox trotted out to talk to Maddux.

Benito Santiago was next up. The manager told Maddux to make Santiago ground out. Maddux said he would.

Santiago popped out.

“I’m sorry I lied to him,” Maddux said.

Then he got Bret Boone to ground out.

In the ninth, Mark Wohlers relieved Maddux. A double by Jeff Branson, an infield out and a sac-fly gave the woebegone Reds another run--their fifth in 30 innings.

For Cincinnati, the club that killed the Dodgers, this thing is a disaster. Rebounding from three games down is unprecedented.

“Unprecedented,” shortstop Barry Larkin repeated, “unspoken, unspeakable, improbable and unbelievable.”

Marge Schott’s entire team has gone to the dogs. Take the fourth inning, when Boone’s two-out single to center skipped past Marquis Grissom, trying to make a shoestring catch. Boone could have had an inside-the-parker, except he dogged it to first base.

“My intention all the way was to have him score,” said third-base coach Ray Knight, who held up Boone at the last instant. “Boonie runs hard to first, he scores. Any chance of a bang-bang play, I send him. Even a 20-80 chance of our scoring, I send him. But I send him, he’s out by 15 feet.”

Atlanta handled the relay perfectly. David Justice, on a bum leg, ran all the way to the center-field wall for the ball. Knight said he never saw an outfielder hustle any harder.

Justice also slammed into a fence, catching a foul. Grissom flagged down a ball two feet from the 402-foot marker in center. Shortstop Rafael Belliard perfectly timed a leap for a line drive. And Maddux picked off Larkin at first base, after Larkin missed a coach’s sign ordering him not to steal.

“We haven’t done a thing right,” Boone lamented. “And you can’t wait around forever.”

Red cleanup hitter Sanders was struck out by Maddux three times, giving him 14 whiffs in his last 18 at-bats. He feels miserable.

The Braves, meanwhile, feel invincible.

“Our defense is amazing,” Maddux said. “Mark Lemke is the best in the league at turning double plays. Marquis Grissom is the best center fielder in the game right now. [Jeff] Blauser played great shortstop all year, and now we’re replacing him with Belliard, who’s even better.”

Maddux did not become a Brave until after their back-to-back World Series crash-and-burns of 1991 and 1992. Thousands of happy tomahawk-choppers here thought a third Series was a sure thing, once the Braves lured Maddux away from the Chicago Cubs, but that was before the Philadelphia Phillies crashed the party.

Like the self-styled “America’s Team” itself, Maddux feels he still has something to prove. He got roughed up by the San Francisco Giants in their 1989 playoff against the Cubs, and owned an earned-run average of 8.10 in league championship play before Friday, leaving room for doubt about him.

“One more win and we’re going to the World Series,” Maddux says. “And that feels a lot better than trying to prove someone wrong.”

Steve Avery starts tonight’s Game 4 against the Reds, whose chances now of being in the World Series are unspeakable and unbelievable. Atlanta felt that way once.