BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : WORLD SERIES : Cox Saves Maddux for Game 5

Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox has decided to start Steve Avery in Game 4 on Wednesday, saving Greg Maddux for a possible Game 5.

“Avery is throwing too good,” Cox said. “I told him if we were 0-2 or 1-1, I’d probably still do it. I think it’s important to have healthy, rested starters.

“This will keep Maddux on four days’ [rest] and [Tom] Glavine on five days’. With the length of the season and the expanded playoffs, it’s important.”

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The Cleveland Indians were annoyed and thought it was a bush-league stunt, but never in their worst nightmare could they have envisioned the effect it would have on their biggest star.

Since the moment Boston Red Sox Manager Kevin Kennedy asked the umpiring crew to confiscate Indian outfielder Albert Belle’s bat on Oct. 3 in Game 2 of the division series--the bat was sawed in half in a search for cork--Belle has been unnerved.

Belle, who batted .317 with 50 homers and 126 runs driven in during the season, has been a complete bust. He refused again Monday to talk about his woes, but the hard fact is that he has as many errors as hits in postseason play--four.

“He hasn’t been the same since,” Indian center fielder Kenny Lofton said. “That was his lucky bat. I don’t know why they did that. They could have just X-rayed it.”

Belle is batting .200 (six for 30) with only one RBI since his bat was confiscated.

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The Cleveland Indians showed no signs of panic Monday, and if anything, are simply mad at themselves for failing to show the world their true team.

“I don’t think anybody has seen the real Indians yet,” first baseman Paul Sorrento said. “Sure, you’ve got to give credit to them because they have a good pitching staff, but if we get hot as a group, I don’t think there’s a pitching staff in baseball that can shut us down.

“Really, I don’t think anybody in this room is depressed or dejected. We still believe that we’re going to win this thing.”

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The Indians have lost six consecutive World Series games since winning Game 6 in the 1948 World Series. . . . Tonight will be the first time since 1970 that a ballpark will be the site of a World Series in only its second year of existence.