Vaunted Pitching Overshadowed by Hitting : Game 3: Scoreless streaks end for both staffs as the Twins’ Erickson, the Braves’ Avery are stung.

ATLANTA —  The Minnesota Twins finally found the antidote to “Poison Avery,” as Brave left-hander Steve Avery was nicknamed by Pittsburgh’s Andy Van Slyke during the National League playoffs, ending Avery’s postseason scoreless innings streak early.

“We put a pretty good scare into him,” Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said.

But when they couldn’t scare up any runs against Mark Wohlers, Kent Mercker or Jim Clancy, the Twins found their World Series lead was suddenly cut in half.

Mark Lemke’s 12th-inning single against Rick Aguilera, the Twins’ seventh pitcher, scored David Justice with the decisive run in Atlanta’s 5-4 victory Tuesday night and represented the first earned run against Minnesota’s bullpen in 27 2/3 innings this postseason.

Aguilera had converted his five save chances in postseason play, including the first two games of the World Series.

Atlanta reliever Alejandro Pena, who converted all 11 of his regular-season save opportunities and all three in the playoffs, also had a rare bout with failure. He entered the game in the eighth inning, with the Braves leading, 4-2, and gave up a two-run home run to Chili Davis.

When Pena couldn’t do the job, it forced Brave Manager Bobby Cox to keep the hotline to his bullpen active, as he called on Paul Stanton, Wohlers, Mercker and Clancy.

“Alejandro was trying to get the ball up and in to Chili and he got it away,” Cox said.

Tuesday night’s game figured to be dominated by the pitchers, but that notion was quickly dispelled. The Twins scored a run in the first inning against Avery, who shut out the Pirates twice in the National League playoffs, and the Braves came back with a run in the second against Erickson.

The Twins’ first inning run was tainted, however. Right-fielder David Justice and center fielder Ron Gant both went for Dan Gladden’s routine leadoff fly ball, and both missed it--giving Gladden a triple. He scored on Chuck Knoblauch’s fly ball to right.

Avery quickly regained his postseason form. His fastball was at its best as he retired 15 consecutive batters until Junior Ortiz led off the sixth inning with a single to center. By then, the Braves had chased Erickson and taken a 4-1 lead.

Justice’s leadoff homer in the fourth broke the 1-1 tie, and they surged further ahead in the fifth. Lonnie Smith’s first career World Series home run in 23 Series games extended their lead to 3-1, and they chipped away at Erickson and David West for another run.

Erickson, who was 12-3 with a 1.83 earned-run average before straining his right elbow and was merely 8-5 with a 5.81 ERA thereafter, looked like his second-half self in the fifth. As in his start in Game 3 of the Twins’ AL playoff series against Toronto, he failed to get out of the fifth inning.

After giving up Smith’s homer, Erickson walked Pendleton. Gant popped out, but Justice reached when Knoblauch dropped an easy grounder as he transferred the ball from his glove to his throwing hand. Pendleton went to third on the play. West walked Sid Bream to load the bases and walked in a run when he missed on his 3-and-1 pitch to Greg Olson.

Avery eased along until the sixth, when he escaped a first-and-third, one-out jam created when Ortiz and pinch-hitter Gene Larkin hit back-to-back singles. Ortiz took third on Gladden’s fly to left, but Avery got Knoblauch on a pop up to the first baseman and retired Kent Hrbek on a fly to center.

Kirby Puckett’s leadoff homer in the seventh may have been the first sign Avery was wilting.

“He’s human,” Lemke said. “Everybody’s going to have days like that.”

Said Cox of Avery: “I don’t think he was quite as sharp after the first inning as he has been in his more recent games. I thought we better go get him in the seventh. We wanted to get Pena in there.”

Avery was relieved by Pena after Ortiz reached first on an error by third baseman Terry Pendleton. Pena, the former Dodger, then gave up the homer to Davis, who had hit a two-run shot against Tom Glavine Sunday in the Twins’ 3-2 victory at the Metrodome.

“I feel real good about the ballclub coming back, especially against a good pitcher like Avery,” Kelly said. “It was a terrific ballgame.”

And a terrific moment for Lemke.

“I guess I was looking for a good fastball to hit,” Lemke said. “When I got one strike on me, I started to just look for the ball to try to hit it somewhere.”