BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAM : Giants Go Within, A’s Go Without

In the environmentally conscious Bay Area, the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants have adopted differing policies on recycling when it comes to their pitching staffs.

The A’s, racked by injuries and ineffectiveness, have been forced to go the recycling route, whereas the Giants, sizzling in the second half, are trying to avoid that method, which they used in recent years.

In their 11-game winning streak that ended Friday night in Cincinnati, the Giants had an earned-run average of less than 2.00

On May 24, when the Giants hit the 12-29 low-water mark in their horrendous start, the ERA was 4.39. It is 3.39 since.

The 11-man Giant staff includes seven pitchers from their farm system, and the rotation has undergone dramatic change since the start of the season, when Rick Reuschel, Mike LaCoss, Scott Garrelts, Bud Black and John Burkett were the starters.

Veterans Reuschel and LaCoss have been released, and Garrelts will be sidelined until the middle of next season because of elbow surgery.

The Giants are starting one rookie pitcher, Paul McClellan, and have two others, Bryan Hickerson and Rodney Beck, in the bullpen.

Forty years ago, Bobby Thomson’s home run against Ralph Branca climaxed the Miracle of Coogan’s Bluff for the New York Giants. A comeback from 12-29 would be an even bigger miracle. But the pitching transition seems to represent a victory in itself, a steppingstone to 1992 and possible stability in the wake of 1991’s bad start and the 26 pitchers the Giants used last year.

“We’ve tried a lot of different avenues, but this is the way we’re going now,” said club President Al Rosen of the internal rebuilding.

Rosen isn’t closing the door on the Giants’ bid to catch the Dodgers in ‘91, but he is trying to keep the streak in perspective.

“We have the best defense in the league, and our offense is now producing the way we thought it would from the start of the season,” he said.

“If our starting pitchers can keep it going for two more months, we have a chance, but there’s no room for error. You’ve got to win when you’re as far back as we are. We may have dug too deep a hole. The first two months were a disaster.”

The Giants scored two runs or fewer in 25 of their first 48 games. Besides improved pitching, the recent surge stems, in large measure, from the return of Kevin Mitchell from the disabled list; the awakening of Matt Williams, who was hitting .199 on May 24 and .229 at the end of June, and the arrival of center fielder Darren Lewis, a Brett Butler-type catalyst at the top of the lineup.

Lewis, obtained from the A’s in a preseason deal for Ernest Riles, had a .351 average and .464 on-base percentage in the first 15 games after his recent recall. When Willie McGee was taken off the disabled list Thursday, Lewis, 23, remained in center and McGee shifted to right.

“Darren Lewis can do everything a good leadoff hitter should do,” said Rosen, who has been without one since losing free agent Butler last winter.

The A’s, meanwhile, keep looking for pitching that will complement their potent offense.

They won seven of the first nine games on a recent trip by scoring 76 runs, overcoming a 5.71 ERA that pushed the season ERA past 4.60.

Ron Darling, whose acquisition from the Montreal Expos followed those of Andy Hawkins and Eric Show, means the A’s have employed 21 pitchers in a season during which they have put eight on the disabled list and force-fed six rookie pitchers at the major league level.

“Can we still win it?” General Manager Sandy Alderson asked of the American League West, his team four games back of the Minnesota Twins. “Yes, but not with the worst or second-worst ERA in the league.”

RADER RADAR

Seldom has an Angel manager--there have been 12 changes in the past 19 years--received the security and support given Doug Rader last September. Rader got the two-year contract he wanted, along with the assurance that the club would emphasize farm development and scouting in Latin America.

There has been no indication that Rader’s status has changed. But there is a belief, based on the organization’s pattern and the availability of a favorite son, Buck Rodgers, that Rader will be scrutinized closely during the stretch of what would seem to be a make-or-break season for a veteran team.

Rodgers, the Angels’ catcher during the formative years of the early ‘60s, accepted a luncheon invitation from owner Gene Autry shortly after his firing as the Expos’ manager in June.

“It was strictly a chance for two old friends to visit,” Rodgers, a Yorba Linda resident, said the other day. “There was nothing asked for and nothing offered.”

Rodgers, regarded highly by the New York Mets and San Diego Padres among others, said he has been informally asked about his plans by several clubs. He has been relaxing and playing golf but said he will get involved again, plugging into the baseball grapevine by attending games at Anaheim Stadium and visiting with scouts.

Rodgers has also told acquaintances that he expects to be working next year and doesn’t think he will have to leave California.

Since Tony La Russa and Alderson are secure in Oakland, and the Dodgers don’t figure to make a change, that would point to a field or front-office position with the Angels, Padres or Giants.

Only one of those clubs is owned by the longtime friend who was his first big league boss and picked up the check at lunch.

THE RULING

Any list that includes Harvey Haddix and Ernie Shore among pitchers who have thrown perfect games is inaccurate, according to Peter Hirdt of the Elias Sports Bureau, major league baseball’s official statisticians.

Shore, pitching for the Boston Red Sox, did not start the perfect game he is often credited with pitching on June 23, 1917. He relieved Babe Ruth, who had walked the first batter and was ejected for arguing. Shore retired the next 27 Washington Senators.

Haddix, pitching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, did not complete the perfect game he is often credited with pitching on May 26, 1959. He pitched 12 perfect innings before losing the no-hitter and the game, 1-0, to the Milwaukee Braves in the 13th.

Neither can be considered a perfect game, Hirdt said, as Mark Gardner of the Montreal Expos can’t be credited with a no-hitter for having pitched nine no-hit innings against the Dodgers before losing in the 10th, 1-0.

“There’s nothing in the rule book on this, and there is certainly some sentiment to cut a Haddix or Gardner a little slack,” Hirdt said. “They had spectacular performances, but to credit them with a perfect game or no-hitter would be to diminish the performances of pitchers who got it done from start to finish.

“Look at it this way . . . no one would consider crediting Haddix or Gardner with a shutout just because they pitched nine shutout innings. So how can they be credited with a perfect game or no- hitter?”

TARTABULL’S TIMING

Sound again after two injury-marred seasons, Danny Tartabull of the Kansas City Royals is battling Kirby Puckett and Rafael Palmeiro for the American League batting title and would have a shot at the triple crown if Cecil Fielder were still playing in Japan.

Tartabull’s timing has to be admired. He will be eligible for free agency after this season, the best of his career, although he had three big seasons starting in 1986, hitting 25, 34 and 26 home runs with 96, 101 and 102 runs batted in, respectively.

Agent Dennis Gilbert, who has begun contract talks with the Royals, said he considers Tartabull deserving of a contract in Jose Canseco’s range. Canseco, another of Gilbert’s clients, receives an annual average salary of $4.7 million in his five-year deal with the Athletics.

Gilbert said of Tartabull: “Take away his injuries and he’d be right in there with Canseco (statistically) and ahead of Will Clark.

“I don’t consider Clark (who has a four-year, $15-million contract with the San Francisco Giants) to be his equal as a hitter. Danny is doing it in the toughest park in the majors for a power hitter (aside from the Astrodome?) and doesn’t have the luxury of strong people behind him.”

Tartabull’s big season serves as a reminder that some of the best trades are those that aren’t made. The Royals offered to trade the man who represents the only real power in the middle of their lineup to the Padres for singles-hitting infielder Bip Roberts during the winter and were inexplicably rejected.

Having benefited by San Diego’s decision, the Royals must decide if they will be prevented from retaining Tartabull by a $30-million payroll, stemming, in large measure, from their financial blunders in signing the free-agent Davis boys--Storm and Mark.

ENDANGERED BIRDS

Writers covering the Orioles called it “the Tuesday morning massacre.” Starters Jeff Ballard and Jeff Robinson, no relation to the Angels’ pitcher of the same name, were sent to triple-A Rochester on Tuesday.

At the same time, release waivers were issued on relief pitcher Paul Kilgus.

Rookies Mike Mussina, the Orioles’ No. 1 draft choice from Stanford in 1990, and Stacy Jones, an Auburn teammate of Gregg Olson and Bo Jackson, were recalled to replace Ballard and Robinson, with the touted Mussina, 10-4 at Rochester, scheduled to make his big league debut against the Chicago White Sox today.

“Someone suggested we’re throwing in the towel, but it’s just the opposite,” club President Larry Lucchino said. “We think this will benefit us in August and September and over the long term.”

It is too late for the Orioles to correct the failures of a season in which their pitching staff is vying with the Tigers’ for the league’s worst ERA, but management had obviously tired of early blowouts.

Thirty-one times the Orioles have reached the fourth inning of a game trailing by three runs or more.

Ballard, an 18-game winner two years ago, was 6-11 with a 5.34 ERA. Robinson, acquired from the Tigers for Mickey Tettleton, was 4-9 with a 5.18 ERA.

Robinson claimed that the Orioles sent him out to avoid the $25,000 bonus he would have earned with one more start.

“It’s all the same to me, Baltimore or Rochester,” he said. “They’re both triple-A as far as the way they treat players.”

Responded Lucchino: “Jeff Robinson had an emotional reaction to what happened and we had an emotional reaction to the way he pitched. But I wish him the best of luck in Rochester.”