The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 31

1 SAN DIEGO COUNTY EDITION Cos Anodes Simcs CCtPARTIII OCTOBER 9, 1989 3 BASEBALL PLAYOFFS Rickey Henderson Seeds A9 Back to Series MVP Steals the Show, Spanks Blue Jays, 4-3 VI By MIKKPKNNER Times Staff Writer CONCERTED EFFORT Rickey Henderson gave a virtuoso performance for Oakland. Ross Newhan's story, Page 14. TORONTO A camera lens pushed through the champagne mist in the Oakland clubhouse and a microphone was pushed in the face of Dave Stewart. "Dave, is there anything you'd like to say to the folks back home in Oakland?" Well, yes, Dave said as he stared wildly back at the camera, there was: We're b-a-a-a-a-c-k." Frightening thought, isn't it? The Oakland Athletics, silencers of the Toronto Blue Jays by way of Sunday's 4-3 victory in Game 5 of the American league playoffs, arc the first team in more than a decade to win back-to-back pennantsand the first team ever to enter a Scries with so stacked an agenda. They want to purge from their consciousness the Dodger disaster of 1988 and now they have Rickey Henderson to help them do it.

Dodgers, be grateful your number came up last year. The A's won 104 games in 1988. In 1989, they might be the most improved team in baseball. Not only did they add a 19-gamc win-, ncr (Mike Moore) to the rotation during the winter, but on June 20 they added Henderson, the fearless leadoff man who completed a peerless championship scries. In Sunday's clincher at the Please see AL, Page 15 NL Playoffs' Big Swing Goes Giants' Way, 6-4 BIG DIFFERENCE Giants arc making the big plays whereas the Cubs arc not.

Mike Downey's column, Page 12. By BILL PLASCHKK Times Stalf Writer SAN FRANCISCO-Thc latest Chicago Cub to be fitted with a mantle of failure stood in front of his locker with head down and lower lip trembling. "There's been a lot of times I've lost important battles," Steve Wilson said slowly, "but never something so important, never something with so much on the line." His eyes grew red and his mouth tightened and, in front of reporters and teammates, the rookie pitcher began tocry. And so another October has brought another Cub team to the verge of despair, this time at the hands of the San Francisco Giants. They grabbed the Cubs by the I scruff of their sorry history and shook them nearly into next season Sunday night, using Malt Williams' two-run homer off Wilson in the fifth inning to take a 6-4 victory in Game 4 of the National league championship scries.

The Giants hold a threc-gaines-to-onc scries lead and will have three chances to advance to their first World Scries since 1962, the first coming today at noon in Game 5 at Candlestick Park. Waiting for the NL's best is American Ixaguc Please see NL, Page 1.1 Amciaud Pim Oakland's Rickey Henderson hits triple in third inning of Sunday's 4-3 victory. Henderson was voted most valuable player of series. Rams Not Perfect, but Their Record Is Chargers Run but Can't Hide in Final Quarter By CHRIS DUFRESNE Times Staff Writer By BRIAN HEWITT Times Staff Writer 1 1 mm m. mi.

The National Football League's only undefeated team can't stand to look at a stat sheet anymore. It hurts too much. Not as much as losing, though, so the Rams continue to endure the pain of explaining victories. They put away the Atlanta Falcons, 26-14, Sunday for their fifth consecutive victory in front of 52,182 at Anaheim Stadium. They did it by allowing opposing quarterback Chris Miller carte blanche, and he fired it up 39 times for a career-high 340 yards.

Please see RAMS, Pace 10 DENVER For three periods Sunday, the Chargers beat the heavily favored Denver Broncos by running the ball against the league's top-rated ground defense, hurrying Bronco quarterback John Elway to distrac- DAVE DISTEL When Bronco quarterback John Elway talked, the Chargers listened and lost Page 15A. 'm cy tion and generally keeping their wits about them in the noise caldron that was Mile High Stadium. Then, in the last 15 minutes, the Chargers beat themselves. This is what young teams with new quarterbacks and first-year coaches do in the NFL. The final score was Denver 16, Chargers 10.

And the loss cost the Chargers (2-3) a share of first place in the AFC West Denver (4-1) scored the winning touchdown on rookie Bobby Humphrey's 17-yard burst up the gut with 1:03 remaining against an inside blitz that should have stopped him cold. But free safety Vencie Glenn missed a tackle at the eight Cornerback Elvis Patterson missed a tackle at the five. And Humphrey, who led everybody with 102 yards on 23 tries, dragged linebackers Gary Plummer and Leslie O'Neal across the goal line. "One of the toughest losses I've ever been through," said Charger defensive lineman Joe Phillips, who had one of his team's three sacks. "Incredible.

We gave the game away." "Today we were our own worst enemy," said Tim Please see CHARGERS, Page 5 Aztecs Again Wait Until End to Falter By FRED LEWIS HONOLULU-For the 1-3-1 San Diego State football team, victory remains somewhere over the rainbow. Not too far, but just enough for a team that has seen three of the past four games slip away in the last 2 minutes 39 seconds. This time it was running back Jamal Farmer's third touchdown, a nine-yard run with 29 seconds left, that lifted the University of Hawaii to a 31-24 Western Athletic Conference victory over the Aztecs at Aloha Stadium. Farmer, a redshirt freshman from Granada Hills, Please see SDSU, Page 15B j) mm si V' Sma liSmmmmismmmm, mm Associated Press Tim Spencer, the Chargers' leading rusher Sunday, can't escape the clutches of Denver's Marc Munford. Tampa Bay 42 Chicago.

,35 Please see Page 4 Denver 16 San Diego 10 Indianapolis 37 Buffalo 14 Please see Page 6 New England 23 Houston .13 Please see Page 6 Miami .13 Cleveland 10 (OT) Please see Page 6 San Francisco 24 New Orleans 20 Please see Page 7 Green Bay 31 Dallas ..13 Please see Page 8 Cincinnati 26 Pittsburgh 16 Please see Page 9 Morning Briefing Page 2 San Diego County 15A-B Golf Roundup 20 Tennis Roundup 20 The Day in Sports 23-25 Minnesota 24 Detroit 17 Please see Page 9 Washington 30 Phoenix 28 Please see Page 9 Kansas City 20 Seattle .....16 Please see Page 7 Philadelphia 21 New York Giants 19 Please see Page 8 i.