WORLD SERIES: ATLANTA BRAVES vs. CLEVELAND INDIANS : Indians Climb Up Jacobs Ladder : Game 3: Cleveland returns home, rallies from 6-5 deficit and wins in 11th, 7-6.

CLEVELAND —  The Cleveland Indians say they get a magical feeling in Jacobs Field, where they went 54-18 during the regular season and won 17 games in their final at-bat, but 43,584 fans were beginning to wonder Tuesday night whether all that talk was a bunch of hocus-pocus.

The Indians blew an early three-run lead to the Atlanta Braves in Game 3 of the World Series, an eighth-inning error aiding a three-run rally in which the Braves scored the tying and go-ahead runs, and Manager Mike Hargrove was confounding the Indian faithful with even more questionable decisions.

But the Jacobs charm finally came back in the bottom of the 11th inning, when Eddie Murray lined an RBI single to center field to lift the Indians to a 7-6 victory over the Braves, ending a 4-hour, 9-minute thriller/chiller that pulled Cleveland to within 2-1 in the series.

“We’re a lot better offensive team in this park,” said Cleveland catcher Sandy Alomar, whose RBI double in the eighth tied the game, 6-6. “We love the atmosphere, the fans supported us and stayed all night. We needed a little enthusiasm, and they gave it to us.”

Carlos Baerga started the game-winning rally with a double to right-center field off reliever Alejandro Pena, and Albert Belle was intentionally walked.

Murray, who was hitless with three strikeouts in five previous at-bats, followed with his game-winning hit, which scored pinch-runner Alvaro Espinoza and gave Indian fans a warm and fuzzy feeling on a Swiss-Miss, blow-on-your-fists night--the wind chill factor was 29 degrees.

“It’s a huge win for us,” Hargrove said. “There hasn’t been a team in history that has come back from being down, 3-0, and won a World Series. So it was a big win for us emotionally and physically.”

Cleveland closer-turned-long-reliever Jose Mesa pitched three scoreless innings to earn the victory, the Indians’ 14th in 15 extra-inning decisions this year. The Braves have now lost their last four extra-inning World Series games since a 1991, 12-inning victory over Minnesota in Game 3.

The win snapped a six-game series losing streak for the Indians, who last won a series game in 1948, and Murray was so pleased afterward that he issued a statement through the Cleveland public relations office--remarkable, because he doesn’t talk to reporters.

“It’s nice to get this little World Series jinx over with,” Murray said. “This one would have been hard to swallow [had we lost], but we stopped them a few times. This was a great win, and hopefully we’ll turn this thing around.”

As he has all season, Cleveland lead-off batter Kenny Lofton sparked an offensive resurgence with three hits in three at-bats and three runs. He reached base all six times, including two intentional walks, and Baerga had three hits and three RBIs for the Indians.

The Indians had 12 hits--that was more than the eight hits they had in Games 1 and 2 combined--but still were in danger of losing a game they had to win to avoid being swept away like the many hot dog wrappers whipped around in the Jacobs Field breeze.

Trailing, 5-3, going into the eighth, Marquis Grissom opened the inning with a double to right off Charles Nagy, the Indian starter who had given up bases-empty homers to Fred McGriff in the sixth and Ryan Klesko in the seventh and appeared to be tiring.

But Hargrove, who often boasts that his bullpen is the best in the American League, inexplicably chose to leave Nagy in to pitch to left-handed Luis Polonia, who grounded an RBI single to right to pull Atlanta to within 5-4.

Hargrove, heavily criticized for his performance in Games 1 and 2, finally came to the mound to pull Nagy, amid derisive cheers from the crowd. But all left-handed set-up man Paul Assenmacher did was set up a Brave rally by walking Chipper Jones after jumping ahead, 0-2, on the count.

McGriff then flied to deep center, Polonia tagging and moving to third and Jones taking second, barely beating Lofton’s throw from the wall. David Justice then grounded to the second-base hole, but the ball bounced off Baerga’s wrist for an error, as Polonia scored the tying run.

Hargrove summoned right-hander Julian Tavarez to face pinch-hitter Mike Devereaux, who lined an RBI single to left-center to put the Braves ahead, 6-5. But shortstop Omar Vizquel bailed the Indians out by leaping over the sliding Devereaux as he relayed his throw to first on an inning-ending, 4-6-3 double play.

Tavarez hurled his glove into the dugout after the inning and booted a water cooler off the top step, but the rest of the Indians maintained their composure, mounting a game-tying rally.

Manny Ramirez drew a one-out walk off reliever Greg McMichael, and Paul Sorrento, who had struck out in his previous three at-bats, singled to right, Ramirez taking third.

Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox went to his closer, Mark Wohlers, but Alomar greeted him with an RBI double inside the first-base bag to make it 6-6. Wohlers walked Lofton intentionally to load the bases but struck out Vizquel and got Baerga to ground to second to end the threat.

“It’s kind of disappointing when you go up, 4-1, and you think you’re going to cruise, but the Braves really came on,” Alomar said. “But we never shut it down. We battled back and delivered in the clutch.”

So did the Braves, but not enough. They had runners on first and second in the ninth, but Herbert Perry, who replaced Sorrento at first to start the inning, made a nice, short-hop stab of Jones’ looping liner behind the bag and stepped on first to end the inning.

“He saved the game for them with that play,” Atlanta starter John Smoltz said.

Atlanta took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Jones doubled off the left-center field wall with one out and scored on McGriff’s RBI single to right field.

But Lofton opened the Cleveland first with a single, and Vizquel tripled off the right-field wall to make it 1-1. Baerga’s RBI groundout made it 2-1. Lofton’s double, Vizquel’s bunt single and RBI singles by Baerga and Belle made it 4-1 in the third.

It was an uncharacteristic World Series performance for Smoltz, the Atlanta right-hander who was 1-0 with a 1.95 earned-run average in four previous series starts but lasted only 2 1/3 innings Tuesday.

It was Smoltz’s shortest outing in 13 postseason starts and a disturbing development for the Braves--Smoltz would be the starter in Game 7 if the series lasts that long.