WORLD SERIES / CINCINNATI REDS VS. OAKLAND ATHLETICS : Athletics Are at a Loss to Explain Their Fall From Grace : Game 3: Oakland’s dynasty in the making is now on the brink of extinction.

Even before his team’s 8-3 humiliation in Game 3 of the World Series Friday night, Sandy Alderson, general manager of the Oakland Athletics, was struggling with the swiftly changing perception of the A’s.

Alderson, sitting in the dugout before the A’s fell behind the Cincinnati Reds three games to none in the best-of-seven series, was asked if this was the unmaking of a dynasty.

“I try not to deal in dynasty, legacy, travesty,” he said. “One word synopses are beyond me, but we seem to have gone from one end of the spectrum to the other in 48 hours.”

Was that his opinion or that of the media? Alderson shook his head and said it seemed to be the media view.

“In my opinion, we were not at one end of the spectrum to start with and we’re not at the other now,” he said.

Perhaps, but this much seems clear:

Where the A’s are now is on the verge of embarrassing extinction, and much closer to travesty than dynasty.

“If we keep playing the way we’ve played the last two or three games, we’re done,” center fielder Dave Henderson said of a situation that finds the A’s needing to win four in a row.

He said it amid the sounds of silence in a clubhouse devoid of players for almost 20 minutes after media was admitted.

A shock? An embarrassment?

“Not if we can come back and play to our capability, but if we get beat playing the way we’re playing, there’s no other way to describe it,” first baseman Mark McGwire said.

“I mean, right now they’re the better team, it’s that simple. There’s no explanation, no excuses. We’re getting smoked. They’re hitting everything, scoring a lot of runs and flat out beating us.”

Consider:

--The A’s have been outscored, 20-7, and are one for 23 with runners in scoring position. McGwire is three for 10 with no runs batted in, and Jose Canseco is one for 11 with two RBIs.

Booed by A’s fans while going hitless in four at-bats Friday after being rapped by manager Tony La Russa and Dave Stewart following Wednesday’s game, Bash Brother Canseco dressed in private and refused to speak with the media after this latest disappointment.

--Oakland pitchers, who produced the American League’s best earned-run average for a third consecutive season, have given up 38 hits and 16 earned runs in three games--an ERA of 5.54 compared to 3.18 during the regular season.

“Am I shocked?” Dave Henderson said of the pitching breakdown. “No, I’m the center fielder. I saw the ball going to the plate. We’re dealing with major league hitters who hit pitches they should hit. Sometimes you can get away with a pitch down the middle, but not as often as we’re throwing them.”

Mike Moore, who won Game 3 of the American League playoffs 10 days earlier, didn’t get away with it for long Friday. He faced 16 batters and yielded eight hits, including the two home runs by Chris Sabo. Moore, as did Stewart after Game 1, said he had good stuff but bad location.

“I wasn’t nervous at all, but I couldn’t put my pitches where I wanted, and you can’t make a mistake the way they’re swinging,” he said.

“I mean, they’re relaxed, seeing the ball and hitting it. Right now, they’re more aggressive than any club we saw this year.”

And the A’s catalogue of mistakes expands.

Friday night, for example, there was a costly error by McGwire on a no-chance throw by Dave Henderson that put another runner into scoring position, a stolen base when the A’s pitcher (Scott Sanderson) went into a full windup and a booted double play ball by shortstop Mike Gallego.

As a complement, the team once thought to be the best in baseball managed only seven hits and faces the possibility that its season could end tonight.

Stewart will try to extend the series and said he was undaunted, considering it a no-lose proposition. He predicted another four games, although no team has ever come back from a three-game deficit in the Series.

“Am I making that call? Sure, I’m sticking my neck out, but anything can happen,” Stewart said. “I mean, no one thought anyone would ever hit 715 home runs, but Henry Aaron did. I think I’m going to make it real tough on the Reds, and that will be the start of it.”

Time will tell. For the moment, the A’s seem closer to being finished than getting started.