BASEBALL MISCELLANY

NAMES AND NUMBERS

* Riddled Redbirds: The St. Louis Cardinal lineup that Manager Whitey Herzog likes to call an undisciplined collection of ping hitters had produced two or fewer runs in 19 of 47 games through Thursday, and three or fewer in 27 games. “We’re just pathetic offensively,” Herzog said. Among the most pathetic: Milt Thompson, with eight hits in his last 61 at-bats, and Jose Oquendo, 10 for his last 62. “Jose looks like he never played before,” Herzog said. “Milt, too. It’s a joke, but they’re not the only ones. We’re 12th in the league in average, 12th in runs scored, 12th in home runs and 10th in doubles. It tells you something when you can’t even get a double.”

* Magrane’s Migraine: The inoffensive Cardinals have made it tough on left-hander Joe Magrane to work out of a rut in which he has won two of his last 17 starts. Magrane, 18-9 with a 2.81 earned-run average last year, is 2-8, the Cardinals having scored 15 runs in his eight defeats. Wednesday night, he lost to the Houston Astros, 2-1, despite allowing only one earned run in 7 1/3 innings.

* Blew Brew: The Milwaukee Brewers led the American League with 155 errors last year and are back at it, having made 55 in 44 games, which projects to a club-record 204. The 1985 Dodgers are the only team to have won a division title while finishing last in the league in fielding, but anything is possible in the AL East. The Cleveland Indians, for example, went 11-13 against Western Division opponents and picked up 1 1/2 games in the standings.

* Lumbering Lumberman: At 38 and carrying 235 pounds on knees that give the impression of collapsing with every stride, Dave Parker had driven in 28 runs for the Brewers through Thursday, delivering more triples, three, and as many stolen bases, two, as home runs. Parker had one triple in his previous three seasons and no steals in his two seasons with the Oakland A’s.

Relapse of the Year: Lonnie Smith was the National League’s comeback player of the year with the Atlanta Braves in 1989 but he is now only platooning with Oddibe McDowell in left field. Smith began a weekend series at San Diego Thursday with a .228 batting average, one home run, 12 runs batted in and almost as many strikeouts, 25, as hits, 27, in 118 at-bats. The league leader in on-base percentage in 1989, his 1990 on-base percentage of .308 was only eighth-best among Atlanta position players.

Braves II: Atlanta finished May with a 13-14 record, blowing a shot at its first winning month since May 1987 by losing to the San Diego Padres, 2-1, Thursday night. Only two of the current Braves, Dale Murphy and Andres Thomas, were with the team when it had that last winning month, and only seven of the current Braves were in the majors at that time.