BASEBALL MISCELLANY : NUMBERS

THE AMERICAN LEAGUE WORST: No team in the AL West has played .500 or better since the All-Star break. Going into Saturday’s play, the Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers were 20-22, the Chicago White Sox were 19-23. The Kansas City Royals were 18-23, the the Angels were 17-23, Minnesota Twins 18-24, and the Seattle Mariners 15-24. Five teams in the American League East--Detroit, Milwaukee, Toronto, Baltimore and Boston--were playing better than .500 over that span.

THE STREAKS STOPPED HERE: In the same game in which Paul Molitor’s hitting streak ended at 39 games, a 19-game hitting streak by the Cleveland Indians’ Brett Butler and 11-game hitting streaks by the Milwaukee Brewers’ Robin Yount and Ernest Riles also ended.

LEFT-HANDED COMPLEMENTS: While Molitor held the spotlight, Milwaukee left-handers Ted Higuera and Juan Nieves enjoyed great Augusts. Higuera went 3-1 with a 1.64 earned-run average in five starts, and Nieves is 4-0 and will start against Minnesota today.

CALLING TOM LASORDA: St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman Jack Clark has been pitched around with such frequency that he has 39 walks in his last 27 games and a club-record season total of 127 walks, compared to 18 for Willie McGee, who bats behind him. Clark had also struck out 127 times, meaning he had left the plate 254 times without making contact and could become the first batter in history to do it 300 times. The Houston Astros’ Jimmy Wynn drew 148 walks and struck out 142 times in 1969 for a total of 290 appearances without contact. Babe Ruth had his highest total in 1923, when he walked 170 times and struck out 93.

A BLAST: Wednesday, in his 1,721st major league at-bat, Cardinal leadoff hitter Vince Coleman hit a home run out of the park for the first time. He also has one inside-the-park homer.

THE SOPER SHUTTLE: Minor league infielder Mike Soper, signed initially by the White Sox in 1983, has been involved in three trades between the White Sox and New York Yankees. He went to the Yankees with Britt Burns in 1985 for Ron Hassey and Joe Cowley, returned to the White Sox with Scott Nielsen in January of this year for Pete Filson and Randy Velarde and went back to the Yankees with Jerry Royster Wednesday for Ken Patterson and a player to be named. Is it any wonder that Soper is pictured in the Chicago media guide wearing a Yankee cap?

FOGGY MEMORY: On Tuesday night, Ranger relief pitcher Steve Howe registered his first major league victory since Sept. 3, 1985, when he was with the Twins. Said Howe, whose career has been marred by drug problems: “I don’t remember much about ‘85, so it might have been longer than that.”

TIGER TRACKS: Detroit not only won 33 of its last 47 home games through Friday, it had won 31 of its last 49 road games, winning 11 of its last 15 series on the road.

REVENGE: The White Sox’s Carlton Fisk has hit 24 home runs and driven in 55 runs in 70 games against the Red Sox since leaving Boston.

SINKING FEELING: The Toronto Blue Jays’ Jesse Barfield lost 59 points in 59 days to see his average drop from .307 to .248. He had 4 hits in his last 44 times at bat and 12 in his last 89.

RELIEF: Toronto’s Tom Henke converted all 17 of his save opportunities since July 6 and struck out 11 of the last 13 batters he faced.

SPREADING GOPHERS: Bill Gullickson, traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Yankees Wednesday for Dennis Rasmussen, allowed 33 homers in 165 innings, and Rasmussen allowed 31 in 146.

MULTIPLYING: The Chicago Cubs’ Andre Dawson has hit two or more homers in a game eight times this season, two shy of Ralph Kiner’s major league record, set with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947.