BASEBALL PLAYOFFS National: San Francisco vs. St. Louis : Giants, Cardinals Play Name Games Before NL Playoffs

ST. LOUIS —  No one really knows what it means but its variations have been part of baseball’s jargon for decades. At any rate, the San Francisco Giants have responded to Manager Roger Craig’s silly catch-phrase that seems part philosophy, part salutation and, somehow, a vital part of their success this season.

Everyone in California must have a mantra, and the Giants’ is this: Humm baby .

The St. Louis Cardinals, who will play the Giants tonight in Game 1 of the National League championship series, also have been repeating two words in recent weeks. This phrase, however, is far more understandable and directly related to the Cardinals’ success: Jack Clark.

Clark, the Cardinals’ first baseman who has accounted for 35 home runs and 106 runs batted in, has been out of the lineup since Sept. 9 with a badly sprained right ankle. He is not expected to play either tonight or Wednesday night and perhaps not until a possible Game 6 next week, which no doubt has the Giants chanting humm baby in delight.

“I hope Jack’s ankle is fine and he’s ready to play--after the playoffs,” said Craig, who first applied his catch phrase for inspiration in 1986, when he took the job with the Giants. “I think he’s one of the most dangerous players in baseball. He can break up a game in a minute.”

Clark’s loss is the main reason people are giving the Giants a good chance of knocking off the Cardinals and advancing to the World Series, even though the Cardinals have playoff and World Series experience from just two years ago and the Giants haven’t made a postseason appearance since 1971.

San Francisco’s Rick Reuschel (13-9) opposes St. Louis’ Danny Cox (11-9) tonight at 5:30 (PDT) in the opener of a playoff series featuring teams with vastly different styles but comparable talent.

The availability of Clark, who has made only three uneventful pinch-hitting appearances in the last month, could be the difference. The most commonly used analogy is that, without Clark, St. Louis is a sleek sports car with great wheels but no engine.

The Cardinals undoubtedly have the swiftest team in the National League, led by Vince Coleman and Ozzie Smith. But without Clark, their power source, they are a far less intimidating team. St. Louis was 76-50 and had a 9 1/2-game lead in the East with Clark. Without him, they were 19-16 and had to fight off the New York Mets and Montreal Expos.

“Hopefully, I’ll have a chance to get in there and do something and not hurt myself,” said Clark, who figures only to be used as a pinch-hitter in certain situations tonight and Wednesday.

Even though the alternative to playing a gimpy Clark tonight against the right-handed Reuschel is Dan Driessen, Manager Whitey Herzog said he has resisted the temptation to rush Clark back.

“I’d really rather not use him,” Herzog said. “They still say he’s a week away. The sixth game is about 10 days away.”

It may be only slightly presumptuous to start thinking of the possibility of a six- or seven-game series. But these teams, despite varying greatly in style and personnel, are fairly even in talent.

The Cardinals are a running team. Coleman, who stole 109 bases and was the cause of 20% of the balks called in the National League this season, is an ideal leadoff hitter. His running mate is Smith, who hit .303 with 75 RBIs and 43 stolen bases.

But Coleman and Smith often would be stranded if Clark, Terry Pendleton, who drove in 96 runs, and Willie McGee, who had 105 RBIs, were not hitting behind them. Driessen, Clark’s replacement against right-handers, has hit .233 with 11 RBIs in 24 games. Jim Lindeman, who most likely will replace Clark against left-handed pitchers, hit .203 with 28 RBIs.

The Cardinals’ speed also translates into a strong defense, which has been the salvation of their shaky pitching staff. That staff produced three 11-game winners, 33 saves from Todd Worrell and little else.

Cox had an 11-9 record and a 3.88 earned-run average despite missing a month of the season with a broken wrist. John Tudor, the Cardinals’ starter for Wednesday’s Game 2, missed 3 1/2 months after breaking his leg in a freak dugout accident, then finished 10-2 with a 3.84 ERA. Rookie Joe Magrane (9-7) and Greg Mathews (11-11) figure to be the Cardinals’ other two starters. Bob Forsch (11-7) is not in the rotation for the playoffs.

The Giants, conversely, have strong starting pitching and specialize in the long ball. But Reuschel and Dave Dravecky, the expected starter for Game 2, have each been ineffective in recent outings, and the Giants’ power may be neutralized by cavernous Busch Stadium.

The Giants’ power-hitting first baseman, Will Clark, said he doesn’t think Busch Stadium will affect the long-ball hitters. “It’ll just be like Candlestick,” said Clark, who had 35 home runs and 91 RBIs.

With the right-handed Cox pitching for St. Louis tonight, Craig said he will start left-handed Eddie Milner in center field instead of Chili Davis, and left-handed Mike Aldrete in left field in place of Jeffrey Leonard, who has had a strained hamstring.

“But I’m still going with (right-handed hitting) Candy Maldonado in the outfield because he’s our top RBI guy,” Craig said. Maldonado, a former Dodger, has 85 RBIs, second only to Clark’s 91.

Even without Jack Clark available to drive in Cardinal runners, Giant pitchers are concerned about containing Coleman, Smith, McGee and the other speedy Cardinals.

“Their speed doesn’t change anything with me,” Reuschel said. “I’ll throw the same way I always have and hope they hit it to somebody.”

Craig and Dravecky were more expansive and apprehensive about the dangers posed by Coleman and Smith.

“We’ve been pretty fortunate against them this season, because they haven’t run a lot against us,” Craig said. “My catchers (Bob Brenly and Bob Melvin) are leading the league in throwing guys out. The key is not to let them get on base. They can’t steal first.”

Coleman, in fact, has had trouble stealing second against the Giants. He was caught stealing 5 of 8 times against the Giants this season, three times by Melvin and twice by Brenly. In all, the Cardinals have stolen only 10 bases in 24 attempts against the Giants.

Said Brenly, who will start at catcher tonight: “I can’t just call five fastballs (to keep the Cardinals from stealing). If I do, Tommy Herr will hit the ball over the roof. Their speed can change the way you play, the way you defense a situation. But if our pitchers do their jobs and keep them off the bases, we’ve got nothing to worry about.”

It may not be quite that easy, though.

“You have to be aware of that when you’re on the mound,” Dravecky said. “If you’re lackadaisical, you wind up with those two guys on first and third with the big hitters coming up.”

Added Craig: “I think 80% of this is the pitcher’s responsibility of holding the guy on, and we’ve worked on that. We’ve timed every pitch and know how long it takes our pitchers to release the ball. Reuschel is one of the best at holding guys on base. He’s got a great (pickoff) move.”

Coleman has said that Reuschel, one of the four pitchers the Giants acquired by trade over the summer, is the pitcher he most fears and respects when he is leading off first base.

Herzog’s respect for Reuschel is such that, even if Clark were reasonably healthy, he might rest him in Game 1.

“I don’t think I own Jack Clark,” Reuschel said. “Whitey might think so. I’d just as soon see Clark on the bench whenever I pitch.”

Added Dravecky: “Yes, it would make me happy not to see Clark. But they’ve got a lot of other great players.”

Playoff Notes

The Giants won the season series against the Cardinals, 7-5. The teams split at Busch Stadium. . . . While the Giants worked out at Busch Stadium for two hours Monday, Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog gave his team the afternoon off. Giant Manager Roger Craig said: “We usually don’t play well the first game after a day off, so I wanted them out here.” . . . Herzog apparently is a little upset because he could not expand his playoff roster to 25--the major league limit--but baseball has an unofficial policy against using more than 24-man rosters. The Cardinals have 27 healthy players and Herzog wanted to use injured Jack Clark as the 25th player. “That would be the sensible thing to do,” Herzog told reporters Sunday. “But there’s not a lot of sensible things in the game today.”

Injury update: Cardinal center fielder Willie McGee, bothered by a sprained left wrist and jammed left thumb, will play tonight. But McGee, a switch-hitter, said he might have more difficulty on Wednesday night against left-hander Dave Dravecky because he will have to hit right-handed and put more stress on his left thumb. . . . Third baseman Kevin Mitchell (sore right wrist) is the only ailing Giant regular. Mitchell was given an injection Monday and is expected to play tonight.

The Giants will go with Rick Reuschel tonight in Game 1, Dravecky in Game 2 Wednesday, Atlee Hammaker in Game 3 Friday in San Francisco, and Mike Krukow in Game 4 Saturday. The Cardinals are expected to start Danny Cox in Game 1, John Tudor in Game 2, Joe Magrane in Game 3 and Greg Mathews in Game 4.