By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

CHICAGO - The young lion outdueled the aging master. And now, enchanted Friday night by the fearless pitching of Mark Prior, the Wrigley Field nation leans forward ready to explode, sensing a moment the Chicago Cubs have not seen in 95 years.

The last postseason series won by the Cubs was the 1908 World Series. But now they are a game away ... from finishing off the Atlanta Braves ... from winning this division series ... from taking their fairy tale further up the ladder toward the National League pennant.

Prior put them on the brink on a chilly night, mowing down the Braves on two hits, beating Greg Maddux 3-1, giving Chicago a 2-1 lead in this best-of-five series.

"That," said manager Dusty Baker, "is about as good as it gets."

Prior was the master of his first postseason stage, starving the Braves on only Marcus Giles' third-inning single and Mark DeRosa's eighth-inning double, allowing one runner past first base until DeRosa scored on Giles' sacrifice fly in the eighth.

Facing down the top hitting team in the National League, striking out seven, working with a purpose through all 133 pitches, Prior hardly looked like the 23-year-old he is.

"You wouldn't be human if you weren't anxious," he said later. "But you know what you can do. You know what your job is."

"He's a freak," said catcher Damian Miller. "You're not supposed to be that good at that age."

But he had to be that good. Maddux gave up two runs in the first inning on bad luck and a soft Randall Simon single. But no more, even though he injured his calf in the first inning and re-injured it in the third.

"I thought he did a great job pitching on one leg," said manager Bobby Cox.

Maddux left after the sixth, having given up but six singles, beaten in what may have been his last start for the team he helped make a National League dynasty.

But they were enough. Prior was a mixture of precocious youth and remarkably poised pitcher. No matter that the value of experience was stacked against him. This was Maddux's 31st postseason game. It was Prior's first.

Prior was five years old when Maddux made his first major league start.

"It was kind of surreal," Prior said, "sitting in the dugout watching a guy I watched my whole life growing up,"

But Prior, 11-1 since August, was unflappable after a shaky start when he walked two of the first three hitters, out of rhythm because of a 31-minute rain delay before the game.

"He's way ahead," Baker had said, "of anybody else in baseball his age."

For the Cubs, a victory in game 4 Saturday makes them a series winner for the first time in the history of Wrigley Field, which opened in 1914. They have lost 10 straight postseason series.

For Atlanta, one more loss means yet another October flameout. The Braves latest tale of woe included a sloppy night of four errors, and a Maddux gem wasted, while the Cubs' feverish faithful taunted them with a mock tomahawk chop using a sea of blue caps.

"I'm not down at all," Cox said. "All we have to do is win two ballgames. We've done that hundreds of times."

It was not out of Maddux's character to have early problems. He has been scored upon in the first inning in 18 of his 37 starts - 27 of his total 98 runs allowed.

But this was not much of an explosion. A leadoff bloop single by Kenny Lofton on the eighth pitch of his at-bat. A Mark Grudzielanek sacrifice bunt than turned into a single when first baseman Robert Fick slipped on the wet grass.

And then, after Maddux had carefully worked past the dangerous bats of Sammy Sosa and Moises Alou, Simon hit a looper into right field.

"Typical Maddux runs," Cox said. "The balls they hit good we caught. The balls they didn't hit good fell in."

Prior said he later studied how Maddux worked his way out of the first, to learn for his own use.

The Cubs added a run for comfort in the eighth on Aramis Ramirez' RBI double - which completed a big night for Chicago's corps of ex-Pirates. Ramirez, Simon and Lofton combined for five hits and all three RBI.

"Those guys," Miller warned of Atlanta, " are too good to keep silent."

But behold the power of pitching. The Cubs have scored only 10 runs in three games in this series but are on the verge of winning it. They are 6-for-30 with runners in scoring position and haven't hit anything longer than a double. But the Braves are the team with their backs to the to the wall.