WORLD SERIES / CINCINNATI REDS VS. OAKLAND ATHLETICS : Reds Make A’s Talk Cheap, 8-3 : Game 3: Cincinnati scores seven runs in the third inning to take a 3-0 lead in games. Sabo leads attack with home runs in consecutive at-bats.

Although they are one defeat away from losing the World Series, the Oakland Athletics have lost none of their bravado. That might be all they have left when the Cincinnati Reds have finished with them, a process that could be completed tonight.

By again shelling a pitching staff that was the American League’s most proficient during the regular season, the Reds on Friday silenced the Oakland Coliseum crowd. By again getting exceptional performances from their pitchers, beginning with Tom Browning’s resilience and ending with three scoreless innings from Rob Dibble and Randy Myers, the Reds silenced the A’s potent bats.

But nothing, not even so convincing a triumph as the 8-3 rout that put Cincinnati one victory away from its first World Series championship since 1976, can silence the A’s mouths.

“I don’t think they’re as good as us,” Oakland left fielder Rickey Henderson said. “I know my club and what it can do. Maybe this is bad timing for us. If we play and everything’s ticking . . .”

All that’s ticking for the A’s is the clock. The A’s have few chances left if they hope to win a second successive title. None of the 17 teams that have trailed three games to none has ever rallied to win the Series; only three teams that lost the first three games have ever prolonged the Series to a fifth game, and none ever forced a sixth game.

“Maybe we’ll be the first,” Henderson said. “I think we’re still in the ballgame. We think we’re still in it.”

Said first baseman Mark McGwire, whose misplay of a grounder by Paul O’Neill led to a seven-run Cincinnati spree in the third inning: “Sure, we’re in a hole, but holes have been climbed out of before.”

“Nobody here in this clubhouse wants to get shut out. It’s been a very grueling season, too grueling for us all of a sudden to lay down and die. I just want you to know hat this ballclub can play well, show people what we’re made of and do all of the things we’re capable of doing.”

Henderson’s brash assertion of the A’s superiority brought no anger from the Reds.

“They are (the best) until somebody knocks them off,” shortstop Barry Larkin said. “They’re the defending world champions. Today we were better than them and in the last two games we were the better team. Hopefully, (today) we can be the better team again.”

As controlled in their clubhouse as they were on the field, the Reds wouldn’t permit themselves to look ahead to a championship.

“You can see it, but it’s not over yet,” said catcher Joe Oliver, whose RBI-double in the third off reliever Scott Sanderson produced the Reds’ sixth run. “We haven’t done anything yet. All we’ve done is win three games. It’s not over until you win the fourth game.”

What they did Friday was rebound after Oakland had taken a 2-1 lead on Harold Baines’ two-run home run in the second inning and rake Mike Moore, who had won the third game of Oakland’s AL playoff sweep of the Boston Red Sox. Cincinnati’s seven-run inning was the most productive in the World Series since Minnesota scored seven in the fourth inning of Game 1 of the 1987 Series against St. Louis.

“It seems like that might be the turning point of the Series,” said first baseman Todd Benzinger, whose single followed Chris Sabo’s second home run of the game and was the final hit given up by Moore. “We come back and get seven runs, that’s big. When we look back at this Series, we’ll look at that inning.”

The A’s looked back at it in horror. McGwire, who made only five errors in 1,416 chances during the regular season, committed his second error in three games when O’Neill’s ground ball kicked off his glove. Billy Hatcher, who had singled, scampered to third and he scored on Eric Davis’ looping single to center.

Aggressive baserunning allowed O’Neill to take third and Hatcher to take second. O’Neill scored on Hal Morris’ grounder to first, but Sabo kept the inning going when he slammed a 2-and-0 pitch deep into the left-field seats. He became the 30th player to hit two or more homers in a World Series game and only the sixth to homer in consecutive innings.

“I think I’m more of a doubles-type of hitter and I think I’m a good mistake hitter,” Sabo said. “If I get mistakes, I hit it hard.”

Benzinger’s single was the final hit against Moore, who was relieved by Sanderson. He fared no better than Moore, giving up a double to Oliver, a single to Mariano Duncan and a triple to Larkin before getting Hatcher--the 11th batter of the inning--to ground to first.

“We got a few offspeed pitches up and they got hit, and a few down and they got hit,” Oakland Manager Tony La Russa said. “Up, down, in out. Their offense has a lot of confidence now and we’ve got to find a way to stop them . . .

“We’ve got a lot of competitors on this club. We’ve gotten beat three times in a row, but we’re fortunate this is a seven-game series and we we get another chance tomorrow night. I like our chances tomorrow night.”

Dibble and Myers quashed any chances of an Oakland comeback Friday. Jose Canseco, who received a mixed reaction in his first two trips to the plate, was greeted with cheers in the fifth when he came to bat with runners on first and third, but he managed only a fly to right that O’Neill caught on the run.

“They’re doing everything right and we’re not,” McGwire said. “We’re not playing very good baseball. That’s it, period.

“They don’t surprise me. The thing I’m surprised at is we’re not doing everything we’re capable of doing. I hope to God we come back tomorrow and do the things we’re capable of doing to extend the Series.”