BASEBALL MISCELLANY

NAMES AND NUMBERS

* Left-Handed Compliment: One notable aspect of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ improvement is their performance against left-handed pitching. The Pirates, 22-31 vs. left-handers last year, were 36-19 through Thursday and 13-3 in the last 16 games started by left-handers. A major part of the credit goes to emerging third baseman Jeff King, the Pirates’ No. 1 draft choice of 1986. The right-handed hitting King, in 33 games since the All-Star break, has batted .295 with six home runs and 20 runs batted in.

* Red Socks: The Boston Red Sox, who have led or been near the top of the American League in team batting and near the bottom in home runs, are led in homers by Ellis Burks, with 13--an embarrassment to Fenway Park and its fabled left-field wall. Carl Yastrzemski and Rico Petrocelli each hit 15 in 1974, the fewest ever by a Red Sox club leader. Mike Marshall’s first home run as a member of the Red Sox Tuesday snapped a club drought of eight games, the longest Boston had gone without a homer since an 11-game span in 1974.

* Stubbs Streak: Ex-Dodger Franklin Stubbs has caught Glenn Davis, who has been sidelined since June 25, for the Houston Astros’ club lead in home runs (19) and runs batted in (50). In a recent five-day span, Stubbs broke up a perfect game by Bob Tewksbury with an eighth-inning double, hit only the second home run of the season off Lee Smith for a ninth-inning tie in a game the Astros won in 11, snapped Randy Tomlin’s no-hit bid with a fifth-inning double and hit a two-run homer in the eighth to spoil John Smiley’s shutout.

* Blue Brew: Left fielder Greg Vaughn, who hit 26 home runs at Denver last year and showed enough through the first half of his first full big league season to prompt the Milwaukee Brewers to trade Glenn Braggs to the Cincinnati Reds, produced one hit in his last 47 at-bats through Thursday, his average dropping from .250 on July 4 to .212 and his role being reduced to that of a platoon player. Vaughn has celebrated company in Robin Yount, the American League’s incumbent MVP. Yount hit .271 in April, .237 in May, .245 in June, .243 in July and .185 through his first 81 at-bats of August. His average with runners in scoring position: .367 last season and .212 this season. Said Jim Gantner: “I’m sure this is eating him up inside. He’s such a competitor. It shows it can happen to the best of ‘em.”

* Giant Pains: The injury wave continues to roll over the San Francisco Giants. A pulled rib-cage muscle has sidelined pitcher Trevor Wilson, marking the 15th time the Giants have used the disabled list, a National League high. The Giants have employed 13 starting pitchers and 24 overall. They have had 26 pitchers in uniform, one shy of the major league record. How remarkable is it that they are still in contention? Consider where the three clubs that share the single-season record of 27 pitchers finished: The 1915 Philadelphia A’s were 58 1/2 games out; the ’55 Kansas City A’s were 33 1/2 out and the ’67 Mets were 40 1/2 out.