BETWEEN THE LINES

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
When Houston's Glenn Davis hit a 10th inning leadoff homer on July
22, he broke up a scoreless duel in which the Astros' Nolan Ryan had
thrown 78 pitches over 90 mph and Montreal's Floyd Youmans had 63
over 90.
The National League's hardest throwers, as registered on the
Expos' radar gun, are: Lee Smith, Chicago, who has a high of 98 and
is consistently in the 94-95 range; Todd Worrell, St. Louis, 93-94;
Dwight Gooden, New York, and Youmans, 92-94; Ryan, 92-93; Ken
Howell, Los Angeles, 92-93; Steve Bedrosian, Philadelphia, 90-92;
Mike Scott, Houston, 91; Lance McCullers, San Diego, 90-91; and Jeff
Reardon, Montreal, 90.
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
-- ''Maybe we have some devil worshipers on this team.'' -- Yankee
Don Mattingly (before his team's 4-1 win over Minnesota on Sunday,
July 27) on his team's 5-11 record in games on Sundays. That run
included being outscored 61-18 on seven consecutive Sundays
dating back to June 8.
-- ''Richard Nixon asked me at Anaheim Stadium why they (the
newspapers) always list the Top 10 hitters, and not the Top 10
pitchers or defensive players. Pitching's the whole game of baseball.
Hitting means nothing. It's almost a useless art.'' -- Tiger manager
Sparky Anderson, recalling a conversation with the former president
in 1979.
-- ''I am not a Triple A pitcher. Why don't they get that veteran
pitcher they wanted and let me go make a name for myself somewhere
else?'' -- Ron Romanick, after being demoted from California to
Triple A Edmonton because he 1) had won only 6 of 28 starts since
July 31, 1985, and 2) had been 2-7 with a 6.21 ERA since May 13.
Romanick may be right. In his first outing for Edmonton, he gave up
15 hits and 8 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings.
-- ''Brian Downing is one of those guys who probably even brushes
his teeth hard.'' -- Angel manager Gene Mauch.
SAN FRANCISCAN KNIGHT
Roger Craig's favorite expression, ''humm-babe'' is becoming a
cult phrase in San Francisco. Pitcher Mark Davis had T-shirts
printed for his teammates; bumper stickers with the slogan are
popping up; and someone replaced the nameplate at the entrance of
Craig's office with one that simply reads HUMM- BABE.
GOINGS AND COMINGS
The Reds proved it is possible for a team to extend its
five-game winning streak to six and four-game losing streak to five
-- on the same day. On July 13 the Reds and Expos had a game
suspended by rain in the sixth inning with the Reds leading 3-2.
Because it was the last Reds-Expos date in Montreal this season, the
suspended game resumed on July 24 in Cincinnati -- with all
statistics, streaks and records retroactive to July 13 -- before the
regularly scheduled first game of a four-game series.
The Reds won the suspended game 10-2. (Time of game was 269 hours,
20 minutes.) Since the Reds had won two games before the July 13 game
and three after, they were credited with a six-game winning streak.
Then the teams played the regularly scheduled game, and the Expos won
6-5 in 14 innings. Because the Reds had lost their four previous
games, they extended their losing streak to five.
MISCELLANEOUS
-- After driving in a run with a single on July 25 in Seattle,
Toronto shortstop Tony Fernandez was caught in a rundown between
first and second. If you were scoring the game, the putout went
9-3-6-4-3-4-6-2.
^ -- On July 23 the Angels got around to honoring Don Sutton's
300th win on June 18. The program for the occasion included the
reading of telegrams sent by some of the other 300-game winners.
''Though I'm a man of few words . . .'' began the one from Steve
Carlton.
-- Tommy John has accepted a position as pitching coach at the
University of North Carolina, where one of his pupils will be
lefthander Doug Torborg, whose father, Jeff, was one of John's many
pitching coaches with the Yankees.
-- The Phillies benched Ron Roenicke to give Jeff Stone yet
another look, even though Roenicke had only four fewer RBIs in 190 at
bats than Dale Murphy had in 340 at bats.