Duncan Is Given a Prophet Motive to Lift Reds, 6-3 : NL playoffs: Former Dodger and Hatcher combine to drive in all the team’s runs in a victory over the Pirates.

In the middle of the second inning of what was supposed to be a pressure playoff game Monday, a beach ball dropped from the stands to left field.

Eric Davis, the Cincinnati Reds’ left fielder, picked it up and began dribbling it.

He dribbled left, then right, then cocked his hands and shot it into the arms of a ballboy.

“If I had more time,” Davis said, “I would have put it through my legs and really showed you something.”

The Reds have already shown the baseball world something. They are relaxed, irreverent and leading the National League championship series, two games to one, after a 6-3 victory over Pittsburgh Monday before 45,611 in Three Rivers Stadium.

In winning a second consecutive game against the favored Pirates, Cincinnati did it without production from its star hitters and without dazzling starting pitching, but also without worry.

Mariano Duncan’s wife predicted Monday morning that he would be the star, and the former Dodger laughed at her. Then he hit a three-run home run.

“This is like a dream day,” he said. “Today I am the happiest man in the world.”

Billy Hatcher didn’t know he was going to be in the lineup until he arrived at the ballpark. The former Pirate hit a two-run homer.

“The way things go around here, I’m not so sure I’ll be playing in the next game,” Hatcher said, smiling. “I better enjoy this now.”

Duncan and Hatcher combined to drive in all six Reds’ runs, then Cincinnati clinched it with that predictable nastiness from its bullpen.

Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers combined to hold the Pirates to one infield hit in the final 3 2/3 innings--not one ball left the infield--as the Reds won for the 13th time in 15 games that have featured all three relievers.

In 10 1/3 innings pitched by the “Nasty Boys” in this series, the Pirates have one earned run and four hits and have struck out 13 times.

“I don’t think our personalities are all nasty,” Dibble said. “But pitching-wise, that’s a different story.”

Suddenly, with ace Jose Rijo pitching against the Pirates’ Bob Walk in Game 4 tonight, the Reds’ chances have taken a big turn from last Friday, when they were trailing, one game to none, and facing Pittsburgh ace Doug Drabek.

That was the game, eventually won by the Reds, in which players actually heard Manager Lou Piniella joking in the dugout.

“It was late in the game and we were barely winning, and all of a sudden Lou is down at the end of the bench laughing up a storm--somebody had told him a good joke,” Todd Benzinger said. “It was then I realized, when you would think this team would be the most intense, it is the most loose.

“After all, what is a playoff game? I think we realize we’re playing to be the answer to a trivia question that, 100 years from now, nobody will be able to answer.”

Said Piniella: “We had so much pressure leading this division wire to wire, I told the guys, this is their reward. And man, they should enjoy it.”

They have been listening, judging from the way they conducted their Saturday workout, which was complete with dogs running in the outfield and a mock church revival outside the clubhouse.

“We are acting this way because nobody expects us to win,” Dibble said. “I walk into the clubhouse after I pitch today and we are ahead three runs, and all Tim McCarver is saying on television is how the Pirates are mounting an attack. It’s like everybody really wants the Pirates to win. Everybody but us.”

The Pirates feel lousy, especially their top three hitters. Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla and Andy Van Slyke have combined for seven hits in 34 at-bats for a .207 series average with only one extra base hit and two “BIs. They had two hits in 11 at-bats Monday, failing to advance four runners.

“Barry, Bobby and myself--you don’t want to try to do more than we’re capable of doing,” Van Slyke said. “But right now, we’re all doing that.”

Then there is their hottest pitcher, starter Zane Smith. After being traded from Montreal, he allowed three runs in 46 innings during September and October. But Monday he gave up five runs in five innings.

“We remembered how we used to beat up on the Zane Smith of Montreal and Atlanta--and that’s how we approached him,” Benzinger said.

Finally, in perhaps the most cutting blow of the day, the Reds noticed that even the Pittsburgh fans were down on the Pirates. There were 13,118 empty seats and a noticeable noise reduction from the first two games in Cincinnati.

“It felt like another afternoon game here where both teams were out of it,” Benzinger said. “The fans never really got into it.”

Said Pirate Manager Jim Leyland: “It’s a day game, a weekday game, and maybe those 10,000 people were smarter than I was. I thought we were going to win.”

They didn’t have much to cheer about in the second inning when Hatcher, after a single by Joe Oliver, hit his first homer since Aug. 1 to make the score 2-0.

If nothing else, the Pirates should have considered that an omen. They traded Hatcher to the Reds on April 3 for minor leaguers Mike Roesler and Jeff Richardson.

Leyland said Hatcher, who was with the Pirates for the last month of the 1989 season, made too much money to stay and sit on their bench.

“I could get in trouble for saying this, but I have somebody sitting making $700,000 and no playing time for him--he deserves a chance to play,” Leyland said.

The Pirates rebounded to tie the score with two runs in the fourth inning against winner Danny Jackson on Bonilla’s run-scoring single and Carmelo Martinez’s run-scoring double.

But Bonds fouled out in that inning with runners on first and second. And Jose Lind struck out with one out and the bases loaded.

And within 10 minutes the Reds led for good after Hatcher started the fifth inning with a double. Jackson bunted, Barry Larkin beat out a grounder down the third base line and Duncan homered to make the score 5-2.

Davis, who has a sore knee, Larkin and Chris Sabo have combined to hit .152. But Duncan, Hatcher and Paul O’Neill have combined to hit .360 with two homers and drive in nine of the Reds’ 11 runs.