THE WORLD SERIES : New York Mets vs. Boston Red Sox : Teufel Makes the Error but Fields All the Questions : Met Second Baseman Faces Up to It After He Allows Only Run in World Series Opener

Tim Teufel didn’t have to be told. He knew he was out in Minnesota. He knew the Twins wanted to turn second base over to a touted rookie named Steve Lombardozzi in 1986.

Teufel, having played two full seasons in Minnesota, was only hoping he would be traded into a situation that would allow him to sustain his career. He got that and more. He was traded last January from a team going nowhere to a team with a chance to go the distance, becoming the right-handed half of the New York Mets’ second base platoon.

Teufel talked about all that Friday, the day before the World Series began, the day before he opened at second base against Boston Red Sox left-hander Bruce Hurst, whose appearance put Teufel’s platoon partner, Wally Backman, on the bench.

“Considering where I’m coming from and what I went through there,” Teufel had said, looking back, “my career has turned around 100%. I knew I wasn’t going to be a star or standout here, but I think I’ve produced; I think I’ve helped.

“The Mets were looking for some hitting from the right side, and that’s where I think I’ve made the main contribution.

“I mean, to be in a World Series just a year after losing my job in Minnesota is like having a dream come true.”

A little more than 24 hours later, standing at his locker after the Red Sox won, 1-0, in Game 1, Teufel’s analogy, his dream, had taken a full and painful turn.

“It’s an infielder’s nightmare to have something like this happen in your first World Series game,” he said.

“Do I feel terrible? Yes. Do I have to face it and live with it? What else can I do?”

The dream had disintegrated in the seventh inning of a scoreless game.

Jim Rice was on second base with one out when Rich Gedman hit a two-hopper at Teufel, who allowed the ball to skip under his glove and through his legs. Rice scored the decisive and unearned run.

“No excuses, no alibis,” Teufel said. “The play has to be made.

“The ball took a big hop, then a small one. It scooted on me, and I didn’t get my glove down.

“I’m playing back with a runner on second in a tie game. I’ve got to get my glove down.

“I mean, it’s baseball, it happens, but you don’t like to lose like that during the regular season, let alone the World Series.

“The tough part is that with the platoon situation, I probably won’t get another chance until Hurst pitches again (in Game 4).

“I’d like to come right back tomorrow.”

So deep was Teufel into his misery, he would say later, that he didn’t hear the crowd chanting, “Wally, Wally,” and was mentally still out there, still replaying the error, when he opened the home seventh with a single to deep short, his second hit.

“An error like that can stay with you,” he said. “I don’t even remember getting that hit. I knew that when the inning ended, my hope was that I could get a rally started so that we wouldn’t lose it on the error.”

Backman ran for Teufel but was stranded. The Mets ultimately lost on the error--or did they?

“That run may have been the only run in the game,” losing pitcher Ron Darling said, “but that’s not what beat us. There hasn’t been a team yet that has been shut out and won the game. We were beat by Hurst’s pitching.”

Manager Dave Johnson agreed.

“It’s never one man’s fault,” he said. “I mean, errors are part of the game. It comes down to the fact that we didn’t score a run. How do you expect to win when you don’t score.”

Teufel returned to the bench after that seventh inning and was greeted by a cordon of consoling teammates, including Backman, who said later that he told his platoon partner to forget it, that it happens, that errors are inevitable.

“Everybody in this clubhouse and everybody in the Boston clubhouse has made an error that cost his team a game--and we’ve all probably made more than just one,” Backman said.

“You don’t like to see it happen to anyone, but physical mistakes are part of it. Timmy didn’t get the hop he expected and brought his glove up too soon. The tough part is that it’s the World Series and it gets magnified.”

The media came at Teufel with their magnifying glasses, but the 27-year-old infielder kept his composure, patiently responding to the same questions. Asked about his hitting at one point, he even smiled and said, “Let me just field the error questions right now.”

The man whose name means devil in German had made only 9 errors in 93 regular-season games, making his contribution from the right side with a .247 average and 31 runs batted in.

By the time the last reporter came at him Saturday night, he could reflect on his contributions, on where he had been, and say: “I’m still excited, even though I’m a little down and out right now.

“I’ve bounced back before. I know I’m going to get another chance. I just hope I can do a little more with it.”