BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Cardinals Win by Slipping Candy to a Humm-Baby : Seventh Game Is Needed as Giants Fall, 1-0

About the best thing you can say for the St. Louis Cardinals is that they are still playing, which actually is saying a lot. Their outspoken manager, Whitey Herzog, has called it a miracle, under the circumstances, but their star shortstop says it is just plain stubbornness.

“Those guys in the other clubhouse, they are talking about how good they are,” Cardinal veteran Ozzie Smith said. “But they can’t get rid of us. We’ve been here before and we know what it takes.” However implausible it may have seemed to some, here are the Cardinals, one game away from the World Series or elimination after an intense 1-0 win over the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night in Game 6 of the National League championship series before a raucous Busch Stadium crowd of 55,331.

The decisive seventh game of a series the Giants have alternately dominated or let slip away will be played here tonight at 5:25 (PDT). If Tuesday night is any indication, another win might just be in the Cards.

With little offense to speak of and hardly any opportunities to unleash their fleet of fleet baserunners, the Cardinals managed to scrounge up a run in the second inning thanks to a misplayed fly ball by Giant right fielder Candy Maldonado and then left it to pitcher John Tudor to keep what was their faint pennant hopes alive. The unruffled Tudor, whose pulse rate is even slower than his fastball, shut out a potent Giant lineup for 7 innings. Relievers Todd Worrell and Ken Dayley subdued the Giants over the final two innings to force a seventh game.

Unusually subdued throughout the series, mainly because of the absence of slugger Jack Clark and the advent of the Giants’ flamboyant “Humm-Baby” mutterings, the Cardinals suggested afterward that the Giants might be buckling under the pressure.

“We feel we have a superior team,” Smith said. “All of a sudden, the team without playoff experience (San Francisco) is suddenly seeing things turn around. Nothing has been easy for us, but we’ve shown a lot of character and poise. We’ll see tomorrow what happens.”

Typically for the Giants, making their first postseason appearance since 1971, Tuesday’s loss was de-emphasized and replaced by predictions for the future.

“I can guarantee tomorrow will be a different story,” Maldonado said. “I guarantee that we will win.”

San Francisco might have won Tuesday--or at least extended the Cardinals beyond nine innings--had it not been for a second-inning liner off the bat of Tony Pena that Maldonado apparently lost in the lights in right field.

Maldonado, a former Dodger, charged Pena’s routine liner but went into a slide about 10 feet in front of the ball. The ball sailed over Maldonado’s head and bounded to the right-field wall, Pena easily making it to third base with a triple.

“I couldn’t see it,” said Maldonado, who covered his face with his glove in case the ball was going to hit him. “I couldn’t even see a piece of it. I had to turn my face around. I saw it off the bat. It doesn’t matter if I got there in time. I couldn’t see it.”

Maldonado made a similar play in Game 3 at Candlestick Park, when he said he lost the ball in the lights and performed a similar slide to avoid a direct hit. That play also resulted in a triple, but not a run.

Actually, Maldonado said he was hoping the run-away line drive would deflect off his body and avoid a potential inside-the-park home run. Because center fielder Chili Davis quickly backed up Maldonado, Pena was held to a triple.

Still, Giant starter Dave Dravecky faced a difficult situation with no outs. Dravecky, who pitched a two-hit shutout in Game 2, got Willie McGee to ground to third for the second out.

But Jose Oquendo then lofted a fly ball down the right-field line. Maldonado had this one in clear view and made the catch on the run. At that point, Pena tagged up and ran from third. Maldonado, who has a good arm, made a poor two-bounce throw home.

Catcher Bob Melvin, blocking home plate, had to take several steps toward third, and Pena deftly swerved around Melvin’s outstretched glove and then touched home plate for the first and, it turned out, only run of the game.

Dravecky recovered from that setback to completely shut down the Cardinal offense, such as it is, for the next four innings. Dravecky’s eight strikeouts was a season high, and his four consecutive strikeouts in the fourth and fifth innings tied a playoff record.

As impressive as Dravecky was, Tudor was even more dominating. That’s mainly because Tudor was facing a Giant lineup that had hit at least one home run in the previous five playoff games and had nailed him for five runs in Game 2.

Tudor, who allowed six hits and struck out six, enduredthreats in the second, fifth and sixth innings. Each time, the Giants were not able to advance a runner to third, let alone score.

With one out in the top of the second, Tudor walked Will Clark, who moved to second on a single by Melvin. Jose Uribe then sent a two-strike fastball into the gap in left-center field, but center fielder Willie McGee ran down the ball to make a running catch. Given that reprieve, Tudor then forced Dravecky to ground to first to end the inning.

McGee’s outstanding defense was magnified even more in the bottom half of the inning when Maldonado misplayed Pena’s liner. Herzog had considered pulling McGee because a sore left wrist and thumb had severely hampered his hitting. But it certainly didn’t bother his glove hand.

“I need my rabbits in the outfield,” Herzog said.

The Giants threatened again in the fifth inning on consecutive singles to center by Melvin and Uribe. Up came Dravecky, who was ordered to try to advance the runners with a sacrifice bunt. Dravecky placed a bunt down the third-base line, but third baseman Terry Pendleton quickly fielded the ball and threw to Smith covering third.

Melvin and the throw arrived at nearly the same time, but Melvin was called out, sending Don Zimmer, the Giant third-base coach, into a rage. Television replays showed that Melvin was out by the smallest of margins.

“I thought he was safe,” Giant Manager Roger Craig said. “But that’s done with and we have to go on from here.”

The Giants kept trying to get to Tudor.

Jeffrey Leonard, object of considerable fan abuse in St. Louis, led off the sixth with a single to left. Maldonado then hit a bouncer to second, Tommy Herr opting for the force play at second. Again, the runner and throw arrived at nearly and same time. Again, the runner was called out.

By the seventh inning, Tudor seemed in complete command. The only Giant who had a clue to handling Tudor’s assortment of off-speed pitches was Melvin, who led off the inning with a single. Uribe sacrificed Melvin to second, and Craig chose to pinch-hit for Dravecky. But Bob Brenly, the pinch hitter, weakly popped to third and Robby Thompson struck out.

Herzog had little reason to call his bullpen early, but he had Worrell and friends alerted in the eighth. With one out, Tudor walked Leonard on four pitches and Worrell was summoned.

Worrell, who earned a save in Game 3 despite yielding a ninth-inning home run to pinch-hitter Harry Spilman, struck out pinch-hitter Mike Aldrete and forced Davis to fly to left.

In the ninth, Herzog pulled his strangest substitution yet. After Worrell struck out Will Clark for the first out, Craig brought up Spilman to hit for reliever Don Robinson. Herzog opted for Dayley but wanted to keep Worrell around if needed.

So Worrell moved to right field, where he hadn’t played since college. Dayley struck out Chris Speier, who hit for Spilman. At that point, Worrell waved at the dugout to see if Herzog wanted to move him back to the mound.

He was told to stay put, and Dayley forced Uribe to ground to second to end the game.

“Hey, Todd Worrell is a very, very good right fielder,” Herzog deadpanned. “He’s one of the best defensive right fielders on the team.”

Said Worrell: “I felt pretty confident out there. For me to wish that they wouldn’t hit the ball to me or something, I can’t do that. I was expecting the ball to be hit to me. I wanted it. I’ll play there tomorrow if they want me to.”

So the Cardinals, who finished up with their ace reliever in the outfield, their star slugger on the bench and the rest of the offense in limbo, will be back for another game, at least.

“Our offense carried us the first half of the season,” McGee said. “The defense and pitching carried us the second half. Something is going to carry us from here.”