Braves face elimination after blowing lead in ninth against Giants

After Eric Hinske gave them a lead with a two-run, eighth-inning pinch-hit homer that was the stuff of postseason dreams, the Braves were pulled back into the nightmare of Brooks Conrad's recent defensive misadventures.

Conrad's fielding error let in the second run of a two-run ninth inning that gave the San Francisco Giants a 3-2 win over the Braves in Game 3 of the National League Division Series at Turner Field.

Conrad's second-inning error also let in a run for the Giants, who lead the best-of-five series 2-1 and can eliminate the Braves with a win Monday night at Turner Field.

"It's completely embarrassing," said Conrad, whose two miscues Sunday gave him eight errors in the past seven games. "I feel absolutely terrible right now. I wish I could just dig a hole and go sleep in there."

The Braves mustered just four hits Sunday and have a puny .165 team batting average with 37 strikeouts in three games, yet they were in position to take a 2-1 series lead after Hinske's two-run, two-strike homer off reliever Sergio Romo.

A sellout crowd of 53,284 roared, chopped with red foam tomahawks, and stomped feet to the point where the pressbox was shaking. The energy and excitement in the place were palpable in that eighth inning.

But it changed to stunned disbelief in a matter of 20 minutes, when the Giants mounted a rally against the Billy Wagner-less Braves bullpen.

The veteran closer was dropped from the roster Sunday because of an oblique strain, and the Braves turned to hard-throwing rookie Craig Kimbrel to begin the ninth inning with a 3-2 lead.

Kimbrel gave up a one-out walk and a two-out groundball single single up the middle by Freddy Sanchez before manager Bobby Cox replaced him with rookie Mike Dunn, to get a lefty-on-lefty matchup against Giants slugger Aubrey Huff.

Huff hit lefties just as well as he hit righties this season, and he greeted Dunn with a single that drove in the tying run.

"If [Huff] hits a double or a homer off Kimbrel, then you're asking why we didn't bring in a lefty," Cox said when asked about pulling Kimbrel before he'd given up anything hit hard.

Dunn faced only one batter before he was replaced by sidearmer Peter Moylan, who induced a grounder by Buster Posey, the rookie phenom from Leesburg.

Conrad tried to field the ball near the back of the infield, and it went right between his legs to the outfield to let in the go-ahead run. A collective gasp came from the crowd, then plenty of boos.

Conrad was caught on TV cameras cursing at himself after the play.

"I've never experienced that range of emotions on a baseball field," Braves left fielder Matt Diaz said. "The most emotional game I've ever been a part of. The second one, the other day, ended a lot happier than this one. [The Braves' 5-4, come-from-behind, 11-inning win in Game 2 at San Francisco.]

"But we battled. That's what we did all year, and that's what we're going to come back and do tomorrow."

Braves pitcher Tim Hudson worked seven strong innings, allowing seven hits and one unearned run on four hits and four walks.

"Hinske came up with the big homer, man," Hudson said. "It was the shot in the arm that we needed, and it's unfortunate we came up a little bit short there in the ninth. It's heartbreaking, but we've got to come back out there tomorrow and put it behind us and get tomorrow's win under our belt and head back out to San Francisco [for a potential Game 5]."

Giants lefty Jonathan Sanchez didn't allow a hit until Hudson's sixth-inning single, and the Braves didn't get a runner to second base against him.

The only other hit off Sanchez was Alex Gonzalez's leadoff single in the eighth inning. Conrad followed by popping out foul on a bunt attempt, and the Giants brought in the right-hander Romo after the Braves announced that Troy Glaus would pinch-hit for Rick Ankiel.

After the Giants made the pitching change, the Braves went instead with Hinske, who hit a home run on a 2-2 slider, a line drive to the right-field seats just inside the right-field foul pole.

Hinske's had two hits in nine career postseason at-bats, both of them pinch homers. He also hit three pinch-hit homers during the regular season.

The only run against Hudson scored after Mike Fontenot hit a leadoff triple in the second inning that Jason Heyward barely got a glove on before crashing into the right-field wall.

Cody Ross hit a pop-up to shallow right field that Conrad dropped. Fontenot scored on the play, and it looked for a while like the Giants were on their way to another 1-0 win like they recorded in the series opener.

"It's tough to see any teammate go through a little bit of a struggle," Hudson said. "Brooksy's been such a great player for us all year, such a key player off the bench. He's come up with big hit after big hit, big homer, so he's just got to keep his head up. That's the thing. Just keep his head up.

"We're behind him. We love him. We love him now more than we ever have. We've just go to rally around him and help him get through the little bit of …. I think it's more between the ears than anything right now."