BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : WORLD SERIES / TORONTO BLUE JAYS vs. PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES : Thing Is, He Didn’t Give Phillies Any Relief

He walked to the Philadelphia Phillies’ bullpen in the sixth inning to the warm accompaniment of cheers from the fans along the first-base line.

He walked from the mound in the eighth inning to the heated boos of a crowd of 62,731.

The incredible ride of Mitch Williams through this postseason continued Wednesday night in an incredible Game 4 of the World Series.

The Toronto Blue Jays won it, 15-14, as the Phillies’ bullpen blew leads of 6-3, 12-7 and 14-9 while converting the Fall Classic into a Classic Fall.

Ultimately, it came down to Williams, whose hero-goat, goat-hero odyssey bottomed out in a six-run eighth-inning rally by the Blue Jays.

“I stunk,” Williams said.

“There’s no secret to it, no excuses for it. I couldn’t get them out when I had to get them out.

“If I do my job, we’re tied at two instead of being down, 3-1,” he said of the Series. “It’s obviously a different game.”

In a game unlike any in World Series history, the Phillies led, 14-9, entering the eighth, which opened innocently with Larry Andersen getting Roberto Alomar on an infield grounder.

So much for the age of innocence.

Joe Carter singled, John Olerud walked and Paul Molitor hit a blistering grounder that glanced off Dave Hollins glove at third--he was unfairly charged with an error--and into the left-field corner.

It was then 14-10 with runners at second and third, and in came Williams, who set a Phillie record for saves this year while increasing the EKG business at city hospitals.

“I felt great warming up, but my velocity when I got out there was terrible,” he said, Toronto scouts having clocked him at a hittable 86 m.p.h. earlier in the Series.

“I didn’t have a good fastball, but so what?” he said. “I went out there 50 times this season without a good fastball. You have to learn to live with it.

“I mean, there was nothing wrong with the mound, nothing wrong with the weather, nothing wrong with me except I didn’t do the job.”

Before the game, teammate Curt Schilling, who often drapes a towel over his head when Williams pitches, sported a button on his cap that Williams had given him.

It read: “I Survived Watching Mitch Pitch in the 1993 World Series.”

In the survival test that was the eighth inning, Williams didn’t.

Tony Fernandez singled, Pat Borders walked, pinch-hitter Ed Sprague struck out on three pitches for the second out, but Rickey Henderson and Devon White then raked that modest fastball for the decisive hits--a two-run single by Henderson and a two-run triple by White.

“I made a bad pitch to Henderson, down in the strike zone where he likes it, but I thought the pitch to White was a good one, up and in,” Williams said. “Maybe I’ll feel differently about it when I see the tape.”

It should never have come to Williams, but the Phillies’ middle relief corps has been comparable to an arson squad most of the season, and it has kept the fire burning through the postseason as well. Andersen has a Series ERA of 9.00. David West, who preceded him in this one, is at 27.00, dropping his career Series mark to 63.00.

Williams is at 11.57. He acknowledged that this was a crusher, but insisted he would put it out of his mind as soon as he left the clubhouse.

“I always want to pitch. I don’t care what kind of game it is--wild or subdued.”

There has seldom been a wilder one than this, and one really wonders if the Wild Thing and his team will be back.

Lenny Dykstra, who doubled, walked and hit two two-run homers, driving in four runs and tying a Series record by scoring four, leaned against a locker for support, his voice barely audible.

“I can’t describe my feelings,” he said. “We were in control. We had a chance to go 2-2, but they just kept coming, they just kept hitting. Their offense is as good as it gets, but we let it get away. It doesn’t take a baseball genius to figure that out.”

The Wild Thing’s IQ isn’t known. Only his fastball has been measured, but he didn’t need to be a genius to realize he was the one who let it get away.