Notebook : Blue Jay Power Continues to Flicker

Toronto’s bluest of Jays?

Look no further than the Nos. 3 and 4 slots in Cito Gaston’s lineup, occupied during these playoffs by first baseman Fred McGriff and designated hitter George Bell.

During the regular season, McGriff and Bell combined for 54 home runs and 196 runs batted in.

During the postseason, they have combined for no home runs and four RBIs. McGriff is batting .176, Bell .125.

McGriff, in fact, hasn’t cleared the fences since Sept. 4, when he hit his 36th home run of the season against Richard Dotson of the Chicago White Sox. With a one-for-five performance in Game 4 Saturday, McGriff’s homerless streak stands at an even 100 at-bats.

Bell, who went hitless in five at-bats Saturday, is two for 16 this series with both hits being singles. The only run he has driven in came on a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning of Game 3.

Without pointing any fingers, Gaston looks at his team’s meager extra-base hit total--four doubles and one home run in four games--and concedes, “I guess it’s because Fred McGriff and George aren’t hitting the way we’d really like them to.”

Bell, of course, distributes the blame. Why isn’t he hitting? Some Bell theories:

--Scouting. “They pitched me inside the whole series,” Bell says. “ . . . Before the (regular) season was over, everybody was pitching me outside, outside, outside. (The A’s) pitched me inside. I think they got good scouting reports.”

--The top of the Toronto lineup: “It’s hard when you go up there hitting most of the time with two out. Pitchers don’t give you anything to hit. They don’t want you to be the hero.”

--McGriff: “I hope Freddie starts hitting. It would take a little pressure off me. There’s a lot of pressure on him. I think he’s trying to do too much.”

And what about Bell?

He didn’t want to think about it.

“If you start thinking about this game,” Bell advises, “it’ll drive you crazy.”

Rickey Henderson was on his toes again, doing a little stutter-step at both second and third as he rounded the bases after his first home run of the afternoon.

But he wouldn’t call that hot-dogging.

“I didn’t know, at first, if it was going out of the ballpark,” Henderson said. “I was heading into second base when I looked up and saw it was going to go a long ways out.

“So I broke (the trot) down. I broke it down, because I didn’t want to do too much, so they won’t say I was hot-dogging.”

One more word on Jose Canseco’s home run, this from Oakland catcher-designated hitter Terry Steinbach:

“He might have hit one as far in Cleveland once, but this one had so much more magnitude. That’s got to be four stories up.

“Can you imagine being the guy sitting up there who got the ball? He comes to the park, sees his seat and says, ‘No way am I going to get a ball today.’

“Imagine what he’s thinking.”

It took him eight batters to do it, but Oakland relief pitcher Rick Honeycutt, in his third appearance, finally recorded an out in this playoff series.

He even stuck around to record four more, lowering his earned-run average from infinite to 32.40, which at least can be determined with the aid of a calculator.

Asked to assess his performance, Honeycutt smiled.

“I felt better overall,” he said. “At least I got somebody out, so I’ve got to feel better.”

After botching assignments in Game 2 and 3, what did Honeycutt think about getting the call again so quickly in Game 4?

“I’m glad it happened,” he said. “To me, the longer I’m gone, the more time I have to think about it. And the only way to get over it is to be pitching in a pitching situation.

“You can do all you want on the sidelines and you can analyze it, but that’s no substitute for getting out and doing it between the white lines.”

On his opportunity to close out the Blue Jays as the A’s starting pitcher today, Dave Stewart said:

“There’s no better person to be out there than me.”

Stewart said he would have an early dinner Saturday night, watch the National League playoff on TV and get to bed early.

“I don’t even want to think about tomorrow’s game until I begin warming up,” he said.

A’s third baseman Carney Lansford sat out Saturday’s game because of the pulled left hamstring muscle suffered Friday night.

“It’s sore, but some of that may be attributed to the amount of treatment I’ve had today,” Lansford said. “I’d like to play tomorrow, of course, but I’ll have to wait and see. You can’t make any predictions with a hamstring pull.”

Bill Rigney, first manager of the Angels and now an executive with the A’s, said that if the A’s are successful in re-signing Rickey Henderson, who is eligible for free agency, and Lansford “has any kind of year again, Jose Canseco may drive in 160 runs and hit 60 home runs.”

Of 37 teams that have taken 3-1 leads in postseason events determined by best-of-seven, 30 have gone on to win. The most recent exceptions:

The Boston Red Sox came back to beat the Angels in the 1986 American League playoff; the Kansas City Royals came back to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1985 World Series, and the Royals of that year also came back to beat the Blue Jays in the AL playoff.

Times staff writer Ross Newhan contributed to this story.