BASEBALL MISCELLANY

This Weak in Baseball:

--The Monday afternoon game in Seattle, during which the Mariners got a fifth-inning single, a fielding error, a wild pitch, a fielder’s choice and a balk but failed to score against the Toronto Blue Jays’ Jimmy Key. A runner was thrown out at home on the fielder’s choice.

--The Monday afternoon game in which the New York Mets defeated the San Francisco Giants, 3-2, despite going 0 for 16 with runners in scoring position. The tying and winning runs scored on wild pitches as Scott Garrelts threw forkballs that failed to reach the plate.

--The Tuesday night game at Minnesota in which the Milwaukee Brewers got two doubles, a wild pitch and walk in the sixth inning against the Twins but failed to score. Cecil Cooper was thrown out trying to stretch the first of the doubles into a triple.

--Then there was the piece de resistance, Cleveland’s 6-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox Tuesday night, in which the Indians may have irreparably damaged the art of baserunning.

It started innocently with Pat Tabler being thrown out trying to stretch a first-inning single into a double and Rick Dempsey being thrown out trying to stretch a third-inning double into a triple.

By the sixth, however, the Indians were in high gear. Tabler doubled and moved to third on a single by Joe Carter. Mel Hall grounded to first baseman Bill Buckner, who initiated a successful rundown on Tabler as Carter moved to third and Hall took second.

Brook Jacoby grounded to third baseman Wade Boggs, who threw to catcher Marc Sullivan. Carter broke from third, saw the throw go home and broke back to third, failing to see the throw elude Sullivan and roll to the backstop.

Hall, running from second, saw only the wild throw. He failed to see Carter break back to third. He also failed to see Carter and third base coach Johnny Goryl waving frantically for him to retreat. He wheeled around third and passed Carter, becoming the automatic second out. Cory Snyder then grounded out to end the inning.

Said Boggs later: “I’ve never seen guys go haywire like that before.”

Cleveland Manager Pat Corrales charged Hall with a “rockhead play” and scheduled a baserunning workout for the next day. He held only a meeting, however, which may have been a prudent decision.

“If they had run the bases,” wrote Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “someone might have been killed.”