After Getting Jump, Reds Now Just Jumpy : Baseball: Giants win, 6-2, but pretty much concede division title. Duncan ejected.

Al Rosen, president of the San Francisco Giants, walked into the clubhouse office of Cincinnati Red Manager Lou Piniella Thursday morning, extended his hand and said:

“Congratulations. You’ve done a great job. Good luck--all the way.”

Although it sounded like a concession speech, Rosen’s team went out and delayed what seems to be the inevitable by defeating the Reds, 6-2.

With 26 games to play, including the next three in Los Angeles, the Reds lead the Dodgers by 6 1/2 games and the Giants by 8 1/2 in the National League West, but it seems clear that only the taste of champagne will settle their nerves.

In the wake of Piniella’s gum-spitting, finger-pointing ejection during Cincinnati’s 5-3 victory Wednesday night, second baseman Mariano Duncan was ejected Thursday and responded with a helmet-throwing episode in which he may have broken the distance record Piniella established on Aug. 21 when he dislodged first base and threw it twice.

The Dodgers might want to re-stake the palm trees in Chavez Ravine. Nothing is safe when the jittery Reds are around, though in this division, the lead they built during the season’s first eight weeks may be.

The Reds were 33-12 on June 3 but 45-46 since then.

They seem to think that the umpiring crew in the two games at Candlestick Park, where Cincinnati is 1-12 over the last two years, has a vendetta against them, but the Reds may be seeing shadows where there aren’t any.

As San Francisco pitcher Scott Garrelts noted after gaining Thursday’s victory: “Our approach is to keep playing hard, but we felt we had to win both of these games. The Reds have to take an awful skid to let the Giants or Dodgers back in it.”

Said teammate Brett Butler: “It’s the Reds’ division to lose. Has been all summer. If they seem tight right now, I still have to salute them for keeping it together so long.”

The Reds are attempting to become the first National League team since the inception of the 162-game schedule in 1962, and only the fourth team ever, to go wire-to-wire. This has increased the pressure on a young team, Piniella said, but he added: “Every time we’ve been knocked down, we bounce back, and I’m sure that will be the case in L.A.”

The Reds will face Jim Neidlinger, Fernando Valenzuela and Ramon Martinez in the three-game series that will have a different umpiring crew than Dutch Rennert, Terry Tata, Greg Bonin and Jim Quick. This is the crew that has handed Piniella three of his five ejections and was present in Cincinnati to measure his base throws.

“We’ve had trouble with this crew all year, but I don’t want to talk about it,” Piniella said after Thursday’s loss. “We had opportunities but didn’t hit with men in scoring position. We lost this game before the ninth inning (when Duncan was ejected).”

Piniella’s team had 23 hits in the two games, including nine Thursday, but Steve Bedrosian struck out the final four Reds on third strikes called by Rennert.

“I can’t wait until the season is over so I don’t have to deal with these guys anymore,” Duncan said of NL umpiring in general. “All year, I don’t believe the calls, and I don’t know why (they’re against us). We can’t control that.”

The Reds are considered something of a problem child by NL umpires. Veteran Bruce Froemming recently spoke out about it. Rennert denied Thursday that his crew has it in for them, saying that the calls can’t be all that bad against them since they continue to lead the division.

“If the Reds think they have a problem with us,” Rennert said of his crew, “that’s their opinion but not ours. Any time you have umpires and players, you’re going to have rhubarbs. It can come down to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Duncan, who had flipped his bat when called out on strikes in the second inning, placed bat and helmet at Rennert’s feet when called out in the ninth, walked to the dugout, flung his protective shin guard onto the field and was ejected by Bonin at first base. He then rifled three helmets from the dugout and was restrained from making a charge at Rennert by teammate Ron Oester.

“I try not to argue,” said Duncan, who is batting .314 and has been ejected three times, “but sometimes you lose your mind. I had no idea where the (umpire’s) strike zone was, and I wasn’t the only guy complaining.”

The whines eventually should be replaced by wine. Thursday’s loss, in which the Giants scored three runs off Rick Mahler with two outs in the first inning--two runs coming on a double by Matt Williams, who has 105 runs batted in--should soon be forgotten.

For the team that had four consecutive second-place finishes under Pete Rose before the fifth-place circus of last year, the learning and healing process continues. Tom Browning and Danny Jackson will make their third starts since leaving the disabled list this weekend. Jack Armstrong is eligible to come off Sunday.

The awful skid Garrelts talked about is unlikely. Once whole and healthy, the Reds’ blood pressure may soon stop rising with each called strike.