"I'm little banged up," Piazza said. "But I'm going to go out there and give it all I have."

Leiter, whose only other three-day start came in April 1994, said he's ready to give it a try, even if he doesn't have his best stuff.

"What is 100 percent?" he asked. "If you're a major league pitcher, there's always times when you don't feel great. You deal with it. I have four pitches I can use to get hitters out."

Neither team worked out Monday, choosing to rest after their epic 5-hour, 46-minute battle in Game 5 at Shea Stadium. The Mets were still relishing their improbable 4-3 victory; the Braves were trying to forget.

"Nobody is too down, nobody is too up," Millwood said Monday. "I think everybody is just preparing for tomorrow."

The Braves were three outs from reaching the World Series for the first time since 1996 when Keith Lockhart's two-out, run-scoring triple in the top of the 15th broke a 2-2 tie.

But the Mets evened the score in their half when rookie Kevin McGlinchy walked three batters, including Todd Pratt with the bases loaded. Then Robin Ventura sent a drive over the right-field wall for an apparent grand slam that became a run-scoring single when he was mobbed by his teammates before reaching second base. No matter the scoring, it was still a game-winner.

While New York rocked, the game seemed to awaken Atlanta's listless baseball fans.

There were about 6,000 empty seats for the first two games of the series, but a sellout is expected for Game 6. The Braves had sold some 9,000 tickets following Sunday's game, leaving only a few hundred scattered seats.

The Mets are just the second team in playoff history to force a sixth game after losing the first three games of a series.

The Braves were the first, mounting a comeback against San Diego in last year's NLCS and seeming -- like the Mets -- to have all the momentum on their side following a 7-6 victory in Game 5.

In that game, the Braves won when Padres ace Kevin Brown, working in relief, gave up a three-run homer to Michael Tucker in the eighth and Greg Maddux pitched the ninth for his first career save.

Two days later, the Braves returned to Turner Field before a raucous crowd and managed just two hits in a 5-0 loss that sent San Diego to the World Series.

"You can make a bunch of comments about momentum," Orel Hershiser said. "But they score three runs in the first inning, you'll be wondering, 'Where was it?' "

With a day to recoup, Millwood thinks Game 5 will be a distant memory by tonight.

"I think if they were back-to-back (games), without having a day off, it would have an effect," he said. "But I think with us having today off and being able to go home and get the game out of our head a little bit, I don't think it will be that big of an effect."

But Leiter, remembering the 1993 World Series, feels the Mets will have a huge advantage if they force Game 7. Six years ago, Leiter pitched for Toronto when the Blue Jays won the championship on Joe Carter's ninth-inning homer in Game 6.

"I always felt if we had lost that Game 6 to the Phillies," Leiter said, "we wouldn't have felt too good about Game 7."

NY METS	ATLANTA
CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS Oct. 5 Oct. 6 Oct. 8 Oct. 9 @ Arizona @ Arizona Arizona Arizona W 8-4 L 1-7 W 9-2 W 4-3	CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS Oct. 5 Oct. 6 Oct. 8 Oct. 9 Houston Houston @ Houston @ Houston L 1-6 W 5-1 W 5-3 W 7-5

New York regulars

POS

NO

PLAYER

HT

WT

B/T

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

AVG

C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF

31 5 13 4 10 24 18 19

Mike Piazza John Olerud Edgardo Alfonzo Robin Ventura Rey Ordonez Rickey Henderson Darryl Hamilton Roger Cedeno

6-3 6-5 5-11 6-1 5-9 5-10 6-1 6-1

215 220 187 198 159 190 192 205

R-R L-L R-R L-R R-R R-L L-R B-R

534 581 628 588 520 438 505 453

162 173 191 177 134 138 159 142

25 39 41 38 24 30 19 23

0 0 1 0 2 0 4 4

40 19 27 32 1 12 9 4

124 96 108 120 60 42 45 36

.303 .298 .304 .301 .258 .315 .315 .313

Complete New York roster

Atlanta regulars

POS

NO

PLAYER

HT

WT

B/T

AB

H

2B

3B

HR

RBI

AVG

C 1B 2B 3B SS LF CF RF

12 15 18 24 10 16 27 25 33

Eddie Perez Randall Simon Ryan Klesko Bret Boone Chipper Jones Jose Hernandez Gerald Williams Andruw Jones Brian Jordan

6-1 6-0 6-3 5-10 6-4 6-1 6-2 6-1 6-1

185 180 220 180 210 180 187 185 205

R-R L-L L-L R-R B-R R-R R-R R-R R-R

309 218 404 608 567 508 422 592 576

77 69 120 153 181 135 116 163 163

17 16 28 38 41 20 24 35 28

0 0 2 1 1 2 1 5 4

7 5 21 20 45 19 17 26 23

30 25 80 63 110 62 68 84 115

.249 .317 .297 .252 .319 .266 .275 .275 .283

Complete Atlanta roster

Regulars Statistics source: STATS, Inc.

Copyright 1999 STATS, Inc. Commercial distribution without the express written consent of STATS is prohibited.