WORLD SERIES : TORONTO BLUE JAYS vs. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES : Molitor Rains Hits on Phillies : Game 3: He fuels Blue Jays’ 10-3 romp, but will probably replace Olerud on the bench tonight.

Why it took Toronto Manager Cito Gaston so long to announce if he would play Paul Molitor is anybody’s guess. He knew, he said, but he wanted to cause reporter’s stomachs to churn, as they make his churn sometimes.

What’s a manager to do when he has too many good hitters and no place to play them? Gaston told American League batting champion John Olerud that he was benched for Tuesday night’s Game 3. Molitor, a designated hitter lost in a National League city, would play first base--at least for one game.

You could speculate that Gaston played Molitor, a right-handed batter, because left-handed Danny Jackson was pitching for Philadelphia. But Gaston said that wasn’t it. Molitor hadn’t even hit Jackson particularly well when Jackson pitched for Kansas City.

So credit Gaston with a hunch.

Molitor hit a two-run triple in the first inning and a solo home run in the third, pacing the Blue Jays to a 10-3 victory over the Phillies and a 2-1 lead in the World Series.

“I really didn’t feel any pressure, but I knew it was maybe my only chance to play in these three games here,” Molitor said. “If what Cito said earlier is true, then unfortunately I won’t have a chance to play in the next two games.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been healthy and watched from the bench. But this will be different. This is the World Series and as you know, anything can happen.”

For the 62,689 fans at Veterans Stadium, they might as well have gone to the Spectrum across the street, where Madonna was appearing. Molitor’s bat took them out of the game early, and Roberto Alomar’s four hits kept things going late. The game ended at 12:41 EDT after not starting until 9:25 because of a 72-minute rain delay, the first rain delay in a World Series in 25 years.

The delay didn’t seem to affect Blue Jay starter Pat Hentgen, who, after winning 19 games during the season, had been hit hard in the playoffs. Through the first five innings, Hentgen had five strikeouts. His best in a game is seven.

Working with a 3-0 lead after the first inning, Hentgen didn’t give up a run until the sixth inning, when he walked John Kruk and Darren Daulton, and Kruk scored on a grounder up the middle by Jim Eisenreich to prevent the shutout. The Phillies had been shut out only one time all season. But Hentgen stopped the damage there, striking out Pete Incaviglia to strand the runners.

In the first inning, he struck out Dave Hollins and Daulton, stranding Phillies on second and third. In the fourth inning, the Phillies had runners on first and second and no outs, and Hentgen retired the next three batters.

Jackson, who pitched a strong 7 2/3 innings in Game 4 of the playoffs against Atlanta, retired the last six batters he faced but left the game after five innings with the Phillies trailing, 4-0. The bullpen gave up the other six runs, but this is nothing new to the Phillies. The only two games the Phillies lost to Atlanta were blowouts. They won three games by one run.

But it was Molitor who made Gaston look like a genius.

“These guys have been making me look good all year,” Gaston said. “I think Ole will have a tough time (tonight) following that act of Paul’s.”

The only other time Molitor played in a World Series was 11 years ago with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was 26 then, and now, at 37, he wasn’t particularly excited about the possibility of not playing in the three games in Philadelphia.

Molitor finished second to Olerud in batting with a .332 average, with 111 runs batted in and 22 home runs. Olerud batted .363 with 200 hits, 107 RBI and 24 home runs. Going into Tuesday’s game, Molitor, who excels in the postseason, was batting .429; Olerud, .333, and third baseman Ed Sprague, .129.

Over the course of his career, Molitor has played all infield positions, plus the outfield. But a utility player he is not, and Gaston didn’t want Molitor to wind up at third base or in left field in place of Rickey Henderson, worrying about his defense and causing his offense to suffer. But Molitor said playing new positions has never bothered his hitting in the past. Gaston also was concerned about Molitor hurting his shoulder with long throws, even though Molitor said his shoulder problems are in the past.

Molitor has played about 100 games at first base over the last three years and works out there daily. He hasn’t played third base since 1989, but he has worked out at the position for the past two weeks. He said he wished he would have had a chance to play third base after the Blue Jays clinched the division, but Gaston decided against that, too.

With the rain, the turf was wet, causing grounders to skid even faster on the artificial surface. Molitor had a couple of balls skip by him at first.

But any question concerning Molitor’s ability to play first base was answered in the seventh inning. Against Danny Cox, who had relieved Hentgen to start the seventh, the Phillies scored a run on three consecutive one-out hits before loading the bases. Hollins hit a bullet that Molitor snared. He made a perfect throw to Tony Fernandez, who turned a close double play.

“I didn’t catch many tonight, but the ones I caught were at the right time,” Molitor said.

Any questions about Molitor’s speed were handled in the ninth, when he beat out an infield grounder to short.

So that leaves only one question, and that’s for Cito Gaston.

What is he going to do about Molitor now?

“At this present time, Olerud will play Game 4,” Gaston said. “We will see about Game 5.”

* PHILLIES: Pitcher Danny Jackson made no excuses for his lackluster performance. C4

* NOTEBOOK: C4