WORLD SERIES NOTEBOOK : Layoff Will Probably Give Pitchers an Advantage Over Hitters

An 11-day layoff means it will be a little like spring training when the earthquake-delayed World Series resumes Friday night with Game 3 at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Everyone seems to think the pitchers will be ahead of the hitters.

“You can only do so much in batting practice,” San Francisco Manager Roger Craig said.

And Manager Tony La Russa of Oakland said: “I think the pitching will be the closest thing to normal this weekend.”

Oakland’s Mark McGwire added: “The pitchers are throwing. Batting practice isn’t anything close to a game situation. But then, pitchers definitely have the advantage in the World Series, anyway. You don’t see them. You don’t know their tendencies.”

Scott Garrelts, the loser of Game 1 and San Francisco’s scheduled starter in Game 3, said that McGwire’s thinking is correct.

“You’d think the pitchers would be on top,” he said. “That’s what you always hear.”

Brett Butler of the Giants said that timing is the key and that the hitters lose it faster than the pitchers.

“It’s harder for batters to get back in the groove,” he said. “We both have to get our timing back, but it’s more difficult for us.”

Candy Maldonado of the Giants thought pitchers would have an additional advantage.

“They’ll be more rested,” he said. “But sometimes too much rest is not so good for pitchers because they feel too strong and they tend to overthrow.”

Oakland’s Dave Stewart, who threw a five-hit shutout in the opener and will start Friday, is not worried about having too much rest.

“I think the rest does me good. It makes me stronger,” he said. “I’m not worried about overthrowing.”

Jose Canseco of the A’s thought the mental layoff would affect things as much as the physical layoff.

“There’s no intensity left,” he said. “I think with the earthquake, it all went away. Most of the guys just want to play and get out of here.”

Craig agreed with Canseco that the mental part is the most important.

“The physical will take care of itself,” he said.

The National Weather Service is forecasting clear skies and mild temperatures for Friday’s scheduled resumption of the Series.

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 60s at the start, dropping to the 50s by game’s end for both Game 3 and Saturday’s Game 4. Both games are scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. There is an outside chance of rain for Sunday, when Game 5 would be played at Candlestick, also at 5:30 p.m., if necessary.

Meanwhile, the A’s moved their workouts to their spring training base at Phoenix and missed a clear day with sunny skies and mild temperatures in the Bay area.

Daryl Williams, a forecaster with the National Weather Service, said he talked with Oakland General Manager Sandy Alderson before the team left.

“I couldn’t give them a definite yes (that it wouldn’t rain), so they took off,” Williams said.

The Giants, who trail, two games to none, went through two hours of batting prac tice and then took to the infield at Candlestick. Last week, they played intra-squad games but Craig said that he didn’t think the games were doing any good.

“I’m going to use some of the psychological effect,” he said. “They weren’t having any fun. I think they like this a lot more.”

First baseman Will Clark described his teammates as loose, and said that the Giants, for the first time in a week, were able to concentrate.

“Guys are getting a little pumped up now,” Clark said. “Guys are starting to get the edge back, starting to get the excitement.”

Clark said his sore leg has healed. Left fielder Kevin Mitchell said his sore wrist is a lot better, but that he feels awkward during batting practice.

“I don’t feel right at all,” Mitchell said. “I’m trying to swing my way out. Maybe my body is telling me I’m not supposed to be here.”

The Giants were beginning to think about their two-game deficit and how to overcome it.

“We faced Dave Stewart and Mike Moore in Games 1 and 2 and they’re still fresh in our minds,” Clark said. “They had all the momentum in their favor. As far as momentum, there is none.”

“They had a steamroller effect the first two games and really pummeled us,” Butler said. “Now that’s gone.”

Sports book operators in Las Vegas say the resumption of the Series will bring them a step closer to resolving one of the more perplexing scenarios to face the legalized sports betting industry.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in 42 years in the business,” Mel Exber, president of the Las Vegas Club, said. “Anything can happen now. This thing is up for grabs. You can throw form out the window.”

Despite that analysis, the A’s remain 6-1 favorites to win.

The A’s are prohibitive favorites to win the series in Nevada’s legalized books, but the layoff caused by last week’s devastating earthquake has left some questions in his own mind, Exber said.

Said Art Manteris, manager of the Las Vegas Hilton race and sports book: “Wagering was suspended for several days until the situation was clarified. It was a very popular Series prior to the earthquake.”

If the series had been canceled, bettors would have been refunded their money.

“I suppose there could have been a what-if circumstance,” said Bill Bible, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board. “If baseball would have declared a winner based on two games, we’d have had to make the call” as to whether Oakland was the gaming winner.

Bible, head of the state’s gaming enforcement arm, said the question of an abbreviated Series was never raised until this year. He said sports books, which are regulated by the state, would have been bound by the call made by the Control Board.

At least one sports book has quit taking bets on the Series because of the tragedy in the Bay Area.

Said Bob Gregorka, manager of the sports book at the Sands Hotel and Casino: “We don’t need to make any money in this kind of situation. We recognize that baseball goes on, but we aren’t comfortable trying to make money. I don’t feel right trying to make the odds on the games.”