Prospects for Greater Misery Are Chilling

The frightening thing about Game 3 of the World Series is that Al Leiter and Charles Nagy might be the starting pitchers again in Game 7. Then again, the thought of this alleged classic going seven games is pretty frightening in itself.

Leiter and Nagy combined to give up 12 hits, 12 runs, 10 walks and three home runs Tuesday night, with neither going more than six innings while also combining for 210 pitches.

Where have you gone, Sandy Koufax?

Where have you gone, Mike Mussina?

The dreadful performances by Leiter and Nagy set a discordant tone as the Cleveland Indians and Florida Marlins staged a grim and ghastly battle through arctic conditions. The Indians, allegedly more conditioned to the conditions, ultimately gave it away, 14-11, as the Marlins took a 2-1 Series lead.

Winning ugly? What do you call a total of six errors and 17 walks over 4 hours and 12 minutes of frigid folly starting with the starters?

Only the decision by the geniuses who run baseball and the networks to start World Series games in late October at 8:20 p.m. matched the Leiter/Nagy effort for numbing ineffectiveness.

It was 49 degrees when Nagy made his first pitch amid a hard and chilling wind. It was in the low 40s with a wind-chill of 23 degrees when it ended here at 12:35 a.m. Wednesday morning, an hour at which all those future generations of possible baseball fans in the Eastern and Central time zones had long since gone to sleep--clearly wiser than the parka-wrapped die-hards in a Jacobs Field crowd of 44,880. How much lower do the ratings and quality of play have to go before Bud and Jerry get it and start the games of late October at a more reasonable hour--amid more reasonable conditions--is uncertain. But if Tuesday’s lament wasn’t evidence enough, maybe nothing is. The slapstick conclusion characterized it.

The Marlins scored nine runs off a Cleveland bullpen that had been almost flawless throughout the postseason--seven of the runs coming in the ninth with the help of three Cleveland errors.

Robb Nen, who reached 102 mph on the Miami speed guns while saving Game 1, couldn’t get loose after sitting for four hours in the cold and gave up four runs in the bottom of the ninth before surviving.

The Indians, who had led, 7-3, after five innings, made no excuses.

“The weather had nothing to do with it,” Bip Roberts said. “You can’t make excuses in the World Series. You’ve got to make the plays and go hard for nine innings. It’s upsetting to come home and play this way, but we’ll take a shower and wash it off.”

Nagy, who had matched Mussina’s dominance in the decisive Game 6 of the league championship series with the Baltimore Orioles, pitched back to his previous inconsistency in the postseason, delivering 96 pitches in six innings and giving up three home runs.

He bemoaned a two-run bomb by Jim Eisenreich in the sixth, cutting a 7-3 lead to 7-5. The Marlins went on to tie it in the seventh.

“It was a first-pitch fastball that got too much of the plate,” Nagy said. “I really believe that with a 7-3 lead in the sixth inning, if I don’t give up that home run we would have won.

“Our bullpen has been great, but you can’t rely on it every time. You can’t hand over a one- or two-run lead every night and expect it to hold up. I put too much pressure on them by giving up the home run to Eisenreich.”

How tough were the conditions?

“Tough,” Nagy said. “It was tough developing a rhythm and hard to grip the ball. No one likes playing in these conditions, but we’ve done it before. You just have to deal with it. Whether the weather was a factor or not, it was an ugly game.”

Nagy walked three consecutive batters in the third, tying a Series record. Leiter made 114 pitches in 4 2/3 torturous innings and tied a Series record by walking four in the fourth inning.

Florida Manager Jim Leyland broke up a postgame news conference by insisting that Leiter had good stuff while giving up seven runs, six hits and six walks.

Leiter also mishandled two ground balls, and third baseman Bobby Bonilla made two errors behind him.

“I felt fine, you can’t blame it on the weather,” Leiter said. “Things just didn’t work out. Tomorrow we’ll probably win, two-zip.”

Tonight, however, it’s supposed to be even colder.

Said Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove, also dismissing the weather as a factor for Tuesday’s comedy central:

“It was simply poor play. Those things happen. We haven’t had a game like that in a long time, and I bet the Marlins haven’t either.

“But I don’t think either team has to apologize or needs to apologize for being here. Both teams beat some very good teams to get here.”

Apologies? One thing is certain: NBC executive Don Ohlmeyer shouldn’t have had to make one after saying of this Series: “I hope it’s four games and out.”