BASEBALL MISCELLANY : NAMES AND NUMBERS

Punch Line: If Matt Williams--who batted .200, hit only one home run and struck out 11 times when the San Francisco Giants went 2-8 on a trip that ended Wednesday--follows teammates Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell in winning the National League’s runs batted in title, it will mark only the second time that a team has produced three consecutive titlists. The New York Yankees did it with Bob Meusel, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1925, ’26 and ’27.

Add Williams: His main hurdle may not be Joe Carter of the San Diego Padres, but the injury wave that has forced the Giants to use the disabled list 14 times, equaling last year’s club record. The Giants have used 45 players, including a club-record 23 pitchers, four fewer than the major league single-season record shared by the 1915 Philadelphia Athletics, the 1955 Kansas City A’s and the 1967 New York Mets.

Whitewash: The New York Yankees have never won fewer than two games of a season series from any opponent in their history. They were 2-11 against the Baltimore Orioles in 1982, 2-10 against the Minnesota Twins in 1969 and 2-19 against the Boston Red Sox in 1912. But with three games remaining against the Oakland Athletics, they are 0-9, having been outscored, 43-6. Intimidated? “We sure haven’t done anything to dispute that,” Manager Stump Merrill said.

Homerdome: The Metrodome is still that for opponents, but not the Minnesota Twins, who have been out-homered there, 58-35. Kent Hrbek has hit only five of his 18 home runs at home, and Gary Gaetti has hit only five of 13 there. Adding to the power outage, Kirby Puckett has only five extra-base hits in 115 at-bats since his last home run on July 15.

Witt’s Roll: Bobby Witt of the Texas Rangers is 9-0 with a 1.77 earned-run average in his last 11 starts. He set a club single-season record with his ninth consecutive victory Wednesday night, a 2-1 win over the Kansas City Royals. Of Witt, Royal Manager John Wathan said: “Everybody always knew about the arm he had. Now it looks like he finally has it together. We haven’t seen better stuff from anybody--I mean, anybody.”