WORLD SERIES : ATLANTA BRAVES vs. CLEVELAND INDIANS : Indians Get Real After False Bravado : Game 5: Murray’s calculated reaction to brushback pitch apparently achieves aim of getting team going.

It was a purpose pitch, pure and simple, and no one was going to convince Cleveland Indian batter Eddie Murray otherwise.

Yet, as the pitch sailed toward his chin Thursday night, and Murray ducked away and stumbled out of the batter’s box, a brilliant thought occurred.

He decided he was going to exploit the pitch into a shrewd motivational maneuver, and all of a sudden, the plan unfolded for all to see.

Murray stood defiantly at the plate, began screaming at Atlanta pitcher Greg Maddux, started to taunt Maddux, and slowly began taking menacing steps toward Maddux.

Home plate umpire Frank Pulli and Brave catcher Charlie O’Brien stepped in front of Murray, but it was too late. The entire Indian team rushed onto the field looking for a fight, the Braves emptied their dugout, and although no blows took place, the message was clear:

The Cleveland Indians were not going to be intimidated--no matter how many Cy Young trophies Maddux has won.

By the time the night was over, the Indians had a 5-4 victory over the Atlanta Braves, knocked out the best pitcher in baseball and sent the World Series back to Atlanta for Game 6.

“Eddie got us all fired up,” Cleveland center fielder Kenny Lofton said. “We’ve seen Maddux pitch, and we ain’t ever seen him throw a pitch like that. There was no question he threw that pitch on purpose. He’s got better control than that.”

Said Cleveland shortstop Omar Vizquel: “They found out what happens when you mess with Eddie. You don’t fool around with that man. You saw what happened. Everybody wanted it so bad after that, and we made Maddux pay the price.

“It shook Maddux up.

“He wasn’t the same.”

It’s debatable whether the incident rattled Maddux, but clearly, this was not the same guy who pitched a two-hitter against the Indians in Game 1. Maddux yielded a two-run, first-inning home run to Albert Belle, came back with the brushback pitch on Murray, and wasn’t scored upon again until the sixth when he gave up consecutive two-out, run-scoring singles to Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez.

The Indians, who crowded the plate and successfully took away Maddux’s inside pitch, knocked Maddux around for seven hits and four earned runs.

“Nah, that didn’t bother me,” Maddux said of the bench-clearing incident. “Whenever I’ve given up homers, I’ve never taken it out on the next batter. I don’t believe in it.

“I have a lot of respect for Eddie Murray. He’s great for the game. I’ve never seen him show up an opposing team or another player. I sure wouldn’t do that to him.

“I was either going to nick the inside part of the plate or miss inside. I just missed too far inside.

“I guess emotions were running high at the time.”

Murray didn’t believe him, but refused to elaborate. A few teammates confided that Murray later told them that he wasn’t enraged, but was looking for a way to incite his teammates.

Oh, baby, did it work.

“That woke us all up,” Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar said. “I don’t think he was really that mad, but he sure looked like it, didn’t he?”

Said O’Brien, a former teammate of Murray’s: “I’ve seen Eddie do it before. Eddie plays his games too. Eddie knew what he was doing.”

Atlanta first baseman Fred McGriff said: “Man, if he wasn’t mad, that was a heck of an acting job. It looked like he was going to kill somebody.”

The Indians may still be trailing, 3-2, before returning to Atlanta, but all of a sudden, there is hope and a rejuvenated spirit.

Matter of fact, there’s even a sense of confidence, if not a tinge of cockiness, knowing that in all likelihood they faced Maddux for the final time.

For that, they’ll tell you, they can thank Murray, who’s act of bravado triggered a display of aggressiveness throughout the game that had been missing all Series.

“I don’t think Eddie meant anything by it,” Thome said, “but in a game like this, sometimes you do things you don’t normally do. Atlanta was not going to intimidate us.”

Thome, who appeared to be more upset about the brushback pitch than Murray, provided his own payback. His two-out single to center in the sixth broke a 2-2 tie, and his 436-foot homer to center in the eighth inning provided a 5-2 lead, offsetting Ryan Klesko’s two-run homer in the ninth.

“Thome was pretty hot and upset [by the brushback],” Lofton said. “What did he do, hit that ball about 500 feet? When he hit the ball, he threw his bat. It was like, ‘Take that, baby.’ ”

Said Thome: “You get caught up in the emotions of things. I normally don’t do that, and I can’t explain why I did it. I guess I was fired up.”

The Indians, who were passing around items to be autographed in the clubhouse before the game--just in case it was the last time they were together--were now packing their bags afterward for one final trip.

“We’ve got everything going for us,” Vizquel said. “We’ve got Albert in his groove. We’ve got guys [teed] off. We’ve got everybody believing we can win. And we’ve got all the pressure on them.

“They better be ready for us.”

Said Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones: “Maybe we got them pumped up, I don’t know. All I know is they have to go a hostile environment and try to beat us two in a row.

“Hats off to them if they pull it off, but it ain’t going to happen.

“We’re going to send them back to Cleveland with second-place rings. They can have a nice winter shoveling snow while we spend our winter celebrating.

“Believe me, we are not going to lose this.”