Counsell reached base on the Braves' second error and later scored on the third miscue.

ATLANTA -- Bob Brenly said expect the unexpected this postseason, and he should know.

His Arizona Diamondbacks are one win away from the World Series after throwing 19-game loser Albie Lopez against four-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux Saturday night and winning.

They hit a pair of balls back to Maddux, an 11-time Gold Glove winner, who committed one physical error, one mental error and got buried under a self-inflicted rally.

"Go figure," said Brenly.

The Braves booted routine grounders. They sent throws toward dugouts and backstops, and sometimes didn't throw anywhere. They did all of this in a three-error third inning, setting the stage for an eventual blowout loss and another sad chapter in the book of Braves post-season blues.

	Diamondbacks		11		12		0
	Braves		4		13		4
	WP: Brian Anderson (1-0) LP: Greg Maddux (0-2) SV: Byung-Hyun Kim (2) HR: ARI: Luis Gonzalez (2); ATL: Andruw Jones (2)

The 11-4 Game 4 win by the Diamondbacks saw Craig Counsell drive in four runs, Luis Gonzalez finally awaken with a three-run homer and Brian Anderson and Byung-Hyun Kim defend the reputation of the Arizona bullpen with a win and a save.

"It's nice to talk something positive about our bullpen," said Brenly "We hit a speed bump [five earned runs in Game 2] and everybody was ready to throw them under the team bus."

That bus is rolling now. The Diamondbacks put a 3-1 stranglehold on the best-of-seven National League Championship Series by winning their second straight at Turner Field, as well as the battle of managerial strategy. Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox went with Game 1 loser Maddux -- on three days rest -- while Brenly wouldn't rush back hard-throwing Game 1 winner Randy Johnson.

"We ended up winning a game a lot of people didn't think we had a chance to win," said Mark Grace.

The Braves had one more hit than Arizona (13-12), but were runaway winners in the error column (4-0). Neither starter went more than three innings and although Lopez again showed he wasn't up to the demands of postseason play, Maddux didn't do so well either.

He was knocked out after allowing a two-run double to Counsell with no outs in the fourth inning, the shortest outing of his 29-start post-season career, his LCS record sinking to 4-8.

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A well-rested Johnson could pitch the four-year-old Diamondbacks into the World Series Sunday night, while the Braves bring back Game 2 winner Tom Glavine, also on three days rest, in a do-or-die situation.

All the Braves need to do to get to the World Series is win the next three games and beat Johnson, Miguel Batista and Schilling. They trailed St. Louis 3-1 in 1996 and came back to win by beating Todd Stottlemyre, Alan Benes and Donovan Osborne. Not the same thing.

Maddux allowed eight hits in three-plus innings, but Cox said he was excellent.

"Jam shots fell in and we fell apart behind him," Cox said. "He threw better than the first time out [Game 1]."

Maddux's defense was another story. He made a monumental two-run throwing error to the backstop trying to make a nearly impossible play, immediately after fielding a comebacker with runners on first and third and freezing with indecision.

"Fluky things happened back to back," said Maddux. "It was embarrassing."

"We ended up winning a game a lot of people didn't think we had a chance to win."

--D-Backs first baseman Mark Grace

The inning started with third baseman Chipper Jones dropping Tony Womack's two-hopper into the middle of his glove. Womack was thrown out trying to steal second, but Counsell followed with a grounder to shortstop Rey Sanchez, whose wild throw wound up closer to the Braves dugout than first baseman Julio Franco. It was the first of Sanchez's two errors.

Gonzalez singled Counsell to third. Then Reggie Sanders hit the comebacker, too slow for a double-play, so Maddux looked Counsell back to third, then turned to second attempting to bait Counsell to break for the plate. Counsell decoyed too, starting to break, then stopping.

Maddux spun around to face Counsell, but he wasn't going anywhere. Meanwhile, Sanders was approaching first, but Maddux just held the ball. All runners were safe and the Braves were self-destructing all over again.

"It would have been a bang-bang play and I didn't want to throw it," said Maddux.

Steve Finley followed with a liner that bounced off Maddux's glove and rolled across the wet grass toward the third-base line. Maddux chased the ball, barehanded it on the run and tried to throw to get Counsell at home while falling.

For the second consecutive game, the Braves had a crucial play at the plate and bungled it. Friday night it was catcher Javy Lopez shying away from a throw because he didn't want to get hit by baserunner Schilling.

Saturday night Maddux's throw tailed away from and glanced off catcher Paul Bako's glove as Counsell scored, and Maddux couldn't scramble off the grass fast enough to cover home so Gonzalez scored, too, as Bako retrieved the ball but had nowhere to throw it.

Maddux said the ball picked up too much moisture off the dew-soaked infield grass.

"It was a spitball," he said. "It squirted out, plain and simple. That's one I shouldn't have thrown."

Matt Williams and Mark Grace followed with RBI singles and the hometown fans let Maddux, their four-time Cy Young winner, have it pretty good.

Damian Miller ended the inning with a double-play grounder, but Arizona was right back at it in the fourth, and Counsell again was in the middle of it. David Dellucci blooped a pinch-single batting for Lopez, Womack doubled him to third and both scored when Counsell laced a double down the left-field line to pad the lead to 6-2.

Arizona added a run in the eighth on another Counsell double, then four in the ninth on Counsell's RBI single that preceded Gonzalez's three-run homer. Counsell is 8-for-18 in the series with three doubles, five runs scored and four driven in.

"Randy and Curt have gotten the accolades, and deservedly so. Gonzo hit 57 home runs and consideration for the MVP award, and rightfully so. But if you ask our players and coaches who the MVP of this team is, Craig Counsell is going to get an awful lot of votes," said Brenly.

Anderson, who lost his starting job at mid-season but pitched three scoreless innings in Lopez's Game 4 loss in St. Louis in the Division Series, was the winner. He pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing one run in the seventh when Brian Jordan singled home an inherited runner off Mike Morgan.

Brenly then brought in Greg Swindell for a rematch against B.J. Surhoff, who homered off Swindell in Game 2. Swindell won this battle, popping up Surhoff to extinguish the threat.

Batista, the Game 2 starter and scheduled for Game 6, allowed the first three batters in the eighth to reach, and Brenly went for all-or-nothing by bringing in Kim for two innings. Kim broke Javy Lopez's bat with his first pitch for a run-scoring double-play that cut the knees out from under the rally, and Marcus Giles lined out to Williams at third for the third out. Kim retired the side in the ninth for the save.

"The bullpen's done a decent job all year and it was unfairly criticized the last couple of days," said Anderson. "It's a group of guys that had one bad game against a quality team. It's nice to see the guys get the job done and hopefully it will let the criticism die down and mellow out a little bit."

Ken Gurnick is a reporter for MLB.com.