Less Is More for Giants’ Beck : Baseball: He loses 30 pounds and adds enough speed to his fastball to be an effective closer.

Rod Beck hears, he just doesn’t listen. Not in these situations, when the noise from a crowd of thousands is lost in the sound of his own heartbeat.

He is on the mound, standing before his manager, Roger Craig, who stands with baseball in hand.

The San Francisco Giants are locked in a close game, and Craig, a veteran of 35 major league seasons as a coach and player, summarizes the situation in his drawl:

“OK, we’re up by one. One out, man on second. . . .”

But his words are met by an impatient, outstretched hand and Beck’s stare.

“Half the time, I know he doesn’t hear a thing I say,” a chuckling Craig said last weekend at Dodger Stadium. “He just wants the ball. He’s like, ‘Give me the ball!’ “

And so, with increasing regularity, Craig does.

Before Monday night’s no-hitter by the Dodgers’ Kevin Gross staved off a Giant sweep, the series served as a showcase for Beck, a 24-year-old pitcher from Van Nuys.

The Giants had one-run victories in the first three games, Beck saving each.

It could be a preview. Just who is this man?

Perhaps eventually, one of the league’s top closers.

If Craig speaks of Beck with a twinkle in his eye, it’s because he believes the stocky right-hander soon will be recognized as a star.

“He has the personality, the perfect makeup, to be a great closer,” Craig said. “He’s got a 92-, 93-, 94-m.p.h. fastball, a good breaking ball, a good split (-fingered pitch) and no fear. No fear.”

Also, he looks the part. Beck is a chunky 6 feet and 215 pounds, complete with a bushy, drooping mustache and an intense glare.

“He’s got a mean look to him,” Craig said. “Like (Goose) Gossage.”

All of which accounts for some rather Giant expectations. “Next year, he’ll have 35 saves,” Craig said, “without much problem at all.”

Beck, who has 12 saves to lead the fourth-place Giants, shrugs off such predictions. He knows that a few misplaced pitches can make his tenure as a closer brief.

“It’s nice to know Roger has that kind of confidence in me,” Beck said. “But I also know if I falter, my job is up for grabs.”

That knowledge comes from experience.

Beck seized the opportunity to become the San Francisco closer only after left-hander Dave Righetti and right-hander Jeff Brantley failed. Beck’s climb up the Giant bullpen ladder was made in dramatic fashion.

Starting the season as a middle reliever, Beck pitched 17 scoreless innings in his first eight games.

Even though the streak ended when he gave up up five runs in 1 1/3 innings to the Philadelphia Phillies, Beck revealed a trait that would aid him in becoming the bullpen ace: He has a nasty streak.

“Almost started a brawl,” Righetti recalled with a smile. “He hit a guy who didn’t really try to get out of the way. So, Rod said something to him. And the guy said something back, and then Rod made a gesture and we almost had a fight.”

The player, Phillie third baseman Dave Hollins, started after Beck but was stopped by Giant first baseman Will Clark.

“When you’re getting rocked, it’s not much fun, so you don’t want anybody else having fun, either,” Beck said. “That’s probably not the last time something like that will happen.”

That game against the Phillies, on May 3 in San Francisco, was the only outing in which Beck has given up more than one run.

Two days later, he started a string of retiring 26 batters, striking out 14, over six appearances. It ended when outfielder Andre Dawson of the Chicago Cubs blooped a single to right field.

Beck was so dominant that Craig wondered if he weren’t pitching under an assumed name.

“I had scouted and watched him before in minicamps during spring training, and he threw pretty good, but nothing like this,” Craig said. “All of a sudden, he was throwing 93, 94 m.p.h. at times.”

And with only 11 walks to go with his 72 strikeouts in 68 2/3 innings, Beck still has the accuracy that was his trademark in 1986, when he won four playoff games and carried Grant High to a City Section championship.

Back then, Beck’s fastball topped out at about 80 m.p.h.

“That’s why the Dodgers weren’t interested in me,” Beck said. “They said I didn’t throw hard enough, which was a fact then.”

But not now, a change that Beck credits to a newfound affinity for taking care of himself.

Before last winter, the most strenuous off-season exercise Beck sampled was a round of golf on a weekend. “I never did more than what was required of me,” he said. “I showed up to play the game, and that was it.”

Finally, after four years of prodding, the Giants convinced him that getting in shape would lengthen his career. They suggested a five-week session in New Orleans with Mackie Shilstone, a renowned personal trainer.

So Beck checked in. He weighed 245 pounds. His body fat, 25%, rivaled that of a fried chicken. “I was not a healthy person,” he said.

After a month, Beck was down to 230 pounds with 14% body fat. Since then, he has shed 15 more pounds and picked up 5 m.p.h. on his fastball.

“That’s unheard of,” Beck said. “If I’d have known it would do this much for me, I’d have gotten in shape a long time ago.”

A slider and a split-fingered fastball round out Beck’s repertoire, and he can throw each of his pitches from a variety of angles.

Righetti said: “I said earlier this year, and I really didn’t want Rod to see it, but he reminds me of Catfish (Hunter). He’s not just a thrower. I enjoy just watching him pitch.”

Righetti said he also finds it amusing that Beck resembles Hunter in another way--his mustache.

“I didn’t know we were allowed to wear them like that (falling below the upper lip), but I guess he’s pitching so well that now we are,” Righetti said.

The Fu Manchu is Beck’s trademark. He has worn it since high school. “I thought maybe it was a little intimidating for high school hitters, but now it’s just me,” Beck said. “I don’t imagine my mustache is going to intimidate too many guys up here.”

The fastball might. National League batters are hitting only .207 against Beck. At least one opponent already has placed him in a category that includes some of the league’s best pitchers.

The Dodgers’ Eric Karros ranks Beck behind only David Cone and Jose Rijo--and just in front of Tom Glavine--as the toughest pitchers to hit.

“I’ve probably seen him nine or 10 times going all the way back to (Class-) A ball,” Karros said. “I don’t have a hit (off him) yet, and I think I’ve probably struck out six or seven times. Either I’m due or I’m just not going to hit him.”

So far, Karros is simply one on a lengthy list.