THE WORLD SERIES : Perhaps Cardinals Just Need to Get a Little Fresh Air

The St. Louis Cardinals, semi-traditionalists when it comes to ballpark architecture, are feeling more comfortable and confident. They will be back in the great outdoors, but still on a carpet, at Busch Stadium tonight against the Minnesota Twins in Game 3 of the World Series.

Having staggered out of the Teflon-coated jungle known as the Metrodome with an 0-2 deficit, Manager Whitey Herzog at least feels confident enough to take a few verbal shots at the team that has thoroughly dominated his in the first two games.

Late Sunday night, after the Twins’ 8-4 win over St. Louis in Game 2, and again at a Monday press conference, the irascible Herzog delivered criticisms of the Twins and the postseason system that enables teams lacking in depth to use travel days and short series to maximum their opportunities.

“Why didn’t they win more . . . games if they’re so . . . good,” Herzog said after Sunday’s game. “Why’d they win only nine on the road after the All-Star break if they’re so . . . good.”

Herzog didn’t wait for reporters to supply any answers.

“With this . . . Series and the off days, you don’t really see their team,” he said. “That’s the truth. That’s why they shouldn’t have off days in the playoffs.

“How do you win a pennant? With (pitching) depth. Then, you get to the playoffs and you don’t use your depth.”

Herzog softened his stance, and language, somewhat, during Monday’s press conference. But he basically said the same things, that days off allow Twin Manager Tom Kelly to rest Frank Viola and Bert Blyleven, whom Herzog believes are Minnesota’s only two reliable starting pitchers.

Rookie Les Straker, the third pitcher in Minnesota’s starting rotation and held in even lower esteem by Herzog, will get a chance to change Herzog’s opinion when he opposes the Cardinals’ John Tudor tonight at 5:30 (PDT) in Game 3.

But Monday, Herzog’s beliefs were unwavering.

“I don’t think (the Twins) could’ve won the AL East, as they are presently constituted, and with the type of situation when you play every day,” Herzog said. “And I don’t think they could have won the NL East, as they are presently constituted. But that’s the way it is. In the playoffs, you can get away with using 5 of 9 pitchers.”

During the Twins’ workout on a drizzly and cold afternoon at Busch Stadium, accounts of Herzog’s oratory eventually reached Twin players and Kelly.

“It’s hot air,” Minnesota first baseman Kent Hrbek said. “Look at what happened to Jeffrey Leonard when he was popping off. (Herzog) can talk all he wants. They got beat. He’s just trying to scare us with words.

“But sticks and stone will break my bones, but birds will never hurt me.”

The luxury of a 2-0 series lead enables the Twins to inject a little levity into a budding controversy. Kelly, however, refused to be drawn into the argument.

Truth be told, Kelly sort of agreed with Herzog, at least about the days off benefiting his team. He said that if the Twins lose tonight’s game, Viola will return on three days’ rest to pitch Game 4, and that Blyleven will start Game 5.

“That’s probably true,” Kelly said of the playoff structure. “I don’t care to try to figure it out. The World Series is set up that way.

“I’m just worrying about winning tomorrow’s game. We’re going to be on TV again and we want to give them a good show again.”

Even though the Twins dominated the Cardinals in Minneapolis, averaging a run an inning over two games and limiting the Cardinals to five runs, there are several factors that favor a Cardinal revival tonight.

The Cardinals are back at Busch Stadium, where they can keep track of fly balls without losing them in the off-white roof and pale orange lighting. They also don’t need earplugs to keep the crowd noise down to a dull roar.

But perhaps the biggest factor is the pitching matchup, which seems to favor the Cardinals.

Tudor is coming off a 1-0 shutout of the San Francisco Giants in Game 6 of the National League playoffs, a game the Cardinals needed to win to stay alive.

Although Tudor was successful in holding off a previously potent Giant attack led by Leonard and Will Clark, the Twins figure to be a bigger challenge.

In Game 1 Saturday night, the Twins scored seven runs in the fourth inning off Joe Magrane and Bob Forsch on the way to a 10-1 win. In Game 2 Sunday night, they produced a six-run fourth inning outburst off Danny Cox in an 8-4 win.

In a rare attempt at humor, the usually dour Tudor said: “Eighteen runs in two games? Maybe we should just go from the third to the fifth inning, just skip the fourth.”

Tudor, however, seems better suited to handle Minnesota than other Cardinal starters, even though the Twins have had more success against left-handers this season. Tudor, a calming influence at a time when the Cardinals need one, is at his strongest now, after recovering from his freakish broken leg early in the season.

“I can’t think about what happened in the first two games,” Tudor said. “The pressure is the same in any World Series game. But I’d rather be up, 3-1, than down.”

Straker, conversely, is Exhibit A in Herzog’s contention that the Twins have slipped by during postseason play with little depth in their starting rotation.

The Twins obviously are not hoping for a repeat of Straker’s playoff performance against Detroit. Viola and Blyleven gave the Twins a 2-0 lead going into Game 3 at Tiger Stadium. But Straker, a 26-year-old rookie from Venezuela who spent 10 seasons in the minors, was unnerved after only two innings.

He gave up five runs in the third, balking home one of them. Kelly yanked Straker shortly after that, and the Twins rallied to overtake the Tigers, then eventually lost.

“If he walks people, he’s going to have problems,” Kelly said. “These guys will run him right off the field. He has to throw strikes.”

Based on his first postseason excursion, Straker does not exactly give Kelly reason for optimism. But the alternative was veteran Joe Niekro, who posted a 4-9 record with a 6.35 earned-run average in 18 starts.

So, it’s Straker--and most likely a heavy bullpen rotation--again for Game 3 of the Series.

“He was probably tight as a drum (against Detroit),” teammate Roy Smalley said of Straker. “Can you blame him? He spent 10 years in the minors. All of a sudden, he was pitching to get his team into the World Series.

“I told him later that all he had to do to dominate Detroit was throw strikes. That’s all he ever has to do.”

Knowing Straker, he’ll probably want that in writing.

He has a habit of jotting down messages to himself on his glove before the game and between innings, then re-reading them between pitches. His notes, scrawled in Spanish with a ballpoint pen, range from reminding him to keep his concentration to telling him to avoid moving his head for a balk.

“When I throw in the bullpen, the pitching coach tells me things and I write them in my glove,” Straker said. “I just write things about myself, not other players.”

Herzog, meanwhile, said that returning to Busch Stadium will benefit his team, even though the temperature is expected to dip to the low 30s tonight.

“I just feel more comfortable at home,” Cardinal outfielder Vince Coleman said. “I’ve always had a problem playing in domes. Outdoors is where the game is meant to be played. God’s there watching you. That’s where I want to be.”

The road has been quite as hazardous this season for Minnesota, which finished with a 29-52 record. But the Twins rendered that statistic meaningless in the playoffs by winning two of three at Tiger Stadium.

“It’s no secret that we didn’t play well on the road, but I don’t know what happened,” Kelly said. “We’ll just keep trying to play like we have in the postseason.”

For at least the next two games, starting tonight, the Twins will have to take on the Cardinals without a roof over their heads and without a designated hitter.

As Herzog said late last week on his first visit to the Metrodome: “Well, at least part of the World Series will be played where baseball is supposed to be played.”

After two games, though, the Twins are the only team playing World Series baseball as it was meant to be played. Even Herzog grudgingly admitted that.

“They aren’t doing anything wrong,” Herzog said. “They’re playing solid baseball, getting clutch hits. We’re not. . . . They kicked our butts, and we know that.”

TONIGHT’S STARTING PITCHERS

LES STRAKER JOHN TUDOR RECORD ERA RECORD ERA SEASON 8-10 4.37 SEASON 10-2 3.84 PLAYOFFS 0-0 16.85 PLAYOFFS 1-1 1.76