BASEBALL MISCELLANY : NAMES AND NUMBERS

Straw Man: Darryl Strawberry’s September surge will make it tougher for the Southern California teams to turn their backs on the prospective free agent and harder yet for the New York Mets not to give Strawberry the Canseco-like contract he wants. Strawberry pushed the Mets back into the Eastern Division race with five home runs, 15 runs batted in and a .308 average in the first 14 games of September. He has hit 48 homers and driven in 141 runs in his eight Septembers with the Mets.

Candy Man: Candy Maldonado signed with the Cleveland Indians as a free agent after losing his job with the San Francisco Giants by batting .217 with nine home runs and 40 runs batted in last year. Maldonado has rebounded to hit .273 and equalled career highs for homers, 20, and RBIs, 85, through Thursday. Although he is eligible for free agency again, he is talking about being loyal to the Indians.

“Everyone wants you when you’re on top, but last year the only team that wanted me was the Indians,” he said. “Just because I’ve crawled out of the hole I was in doesn’t mean I’m going to walk away.”

The Big Man: Jose Canseco began the weekend having struck out 17 times in the Oakland Athletics’ last nine games, 69 times while batting .262 in the second half. Part of it is a loss of bat speed resulting from his back problem, but Manager Tony LaRussa also believes that Canseco is swinging at too many bad pitches, trying “to force things.” Canseco said his strike zone is being “drastically changed” by bad umpiring, forcing him to swing at pitches he normally wouldn’t.

Odds & Ends: The Seattle Mariners seem destined to become the fifth team to experience as many as 14 consecutive losing seasons. The record is 16 in a row by the Philadelphia Phillies, 1933-1948. . . . With Ken Howell on the disabled list and Dennis Cook traded to the Dodgers, the Phillies have only one pitcher, Terry Mulholland (8-8), with a shot at 10 victories. The Phillies have had at least one 10-game winner every year since 1945. . . . The Pittsburgh Pirates have received victories from 19 pitchers, and Cleveland has had 18 pitchers draw at least one defeat.

Manager Doug Rader, saddled with disappointing performances and an unbalanced roster top-heavy with designated hitter-type outfielders, deserves better than to have his future left hanging by the Angels. . . . The Dodgers are pursuing an affirmative-action process, but most of the organization’s top scouts expect either Terry Reynolds, assistant scouting director, or Mel Didier, special assignment scout, to replace the retiring Ben Wade as scouting director.

This tells everything you need to know about the New York Yankees’ pitching: “I think he could be a No. 1 or No. 2,” Manager Stump Merrill said of former Angel Mike Witt after he had pitched a 7-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers Thursday. Could be, should be is the name of the game with Witt, who is 4-8 overall and 4-5 as a Yankee, having missed two months with a sore elbow. He is on the verge, perhaps, of being declared a free agent because of the latest collusion ruling.