By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

CHICAGO - In the end, there was mostly exhaustion, for victor and loser alike. Atlanta closer John Smoltz leaning over with his hands on his knees, shaken by his narrow escape. Chicago manager Dusty Baker sitting alone in his dugout, wondering what might have been.

And Sammy Sosa looking at the drive he had just hit 390 feet to try and tie the game ... toward a wall 400 feet away.

And so, after Atlanta's scintillating 6-4 victory Saturday night, there is to be one more game, winner-take-all between the Braves and the Cubs. The loser only gets more bad October memories, which neither can use.

"Nobody," Eric Karros said from a quiet Chicago clubhouse, "said this was going to be easy."

"When the series started," Baker said, "deep down in my heart, I didn't want to admit it, but I thought it was going to go five games."

The Braves pushed this National League division series to the limit, revived by the reignited bat of Chipper Jones - and his two-run homers from each side of the plate - and holding back the Cubs in front of an aroused Wrigley Field throng that came ready to celebrate, but went home hiding its eyes.

It ended with Sosa facing Smoltz, Damian Miller on second base, and the ballpark in a thunder watching the confrontation, trying to will one last big hit. The count went full, before Sosa hit a drive to the center field warning track. Ten feet short of a legendary homer.

"I was thinking of how this was going to be a storybook ending either way," Jones said. "When he hit it, my heart jumped in my throat. I think the roof might have come off this place if he had done it."

"If he hits it to the left or right," said Karros, who had two of his own homers to keep the Cubs close, "we might still be out there playing."

Instead, the series is tied 2-2, back to Atlanta the two teams must go for Game 5 Sunday night.

The Braves will find out if their slumbering offense has roared to life before it was too late, even with an injured Gary Sheffield out of the lineup. And whether Jones' two-fisted assault was the trumpet call for a charge into the next round.

His left-handed shot into the bleachers in the fifth inning broke a 1-1 tie. His right-handed homer in the eighth made it a comfortable 6-2.

An Atlanta team shut down to a .191 average the first three games exploded for 12 hits, even as it left 12 men on, coming from a pregame clubhouse that Jones admitted had a sense of desperation.

"It was win the game or take a vacation. It would have been a tough winter for us," he said. "We've staved it off one more day, and now we've got to solve the riddle that is Kerry Wood."

The Cubs will see if there is a price to pay for all the chances they have let slip away. And if, in the end, all they have done is tease their faithful yet again.

The Cubs have stranded 25 runners, and are 7-for-40 with men in scoring position, 1-for-10 on Saturday. They had runners at second base in each of the first five innings, when the game was there to be had, and scored none of them.

They opened the ninth down 6-3 against Smoltz, then quickly struck with doubles by Randall Simon and Miller to make it 6-4. But Kenny Lofton struck out and Mark Grudzielanek popped out. And that left Sosa.

Sunday will tell the cost. The Cubs now turn to Game 1 winner Wood to prevent a 10th straight postseason series loss for the franchise, stretching back to 1908.

The Braves will counter with Mike Hampton, who must work on short rest, hoping for the same grit they got from Russ Ortiz, who did the same thing Saturday and fought through five innings with only one run allowed.

It is a desperate series now, and the play shows it on both sides, from Sosa diving frantically to make a catch, to Atlanta's Julio Franco getting three hits and hauling his middle-aged body from first to third on Vinny Castilla's single in the fourth.

Oh, and one other play that has put heat into this fight. Atlanta's Robert Fick trying to beat out a bunt in the eighth, raising his left arm as he ran by Karros as if trying to knock the ball loose, leaving Karros shaking his elbow in pain and his teammates in a fury.

"I know there wasn't an attempt to hurt Eric, but that's a good way to hurt somebody," Atlanta manager Bobby Cox said.

"An interesting running technique. I'll leave it at that," Karros said. "Just look at the tape. That pretty much speaks for itself."

But Chicago pitcher Mike Remlinger had more to say.

"We were not too thrilled with Mr. Fick and his karate chop," he said. "I've never seen anything like that in my life on a baseball field.

"You don't need a whole lot of extra incentive this time of year. But if anybody needs it, there it is."