BASEBALL PLAYOFFS : Leonard Hits One, Takes One : Giant Outfielder Homers in Third and Pays for It in Fifth

SAN FRANCISCO — Intimidation? You think you’re going to intimidate the Hac-Man, old Penitentiary Face? You think that one high, hard fastball is going to make him accelerate that in-your-face canter he takes after each home run?

If the St. Louis Cardinals were thinking that in the wake of their 6-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants Friday night, Jeffrey Leonard had some news.

“I have no fear at the plate,” he said. “If I hit another one, just watch me.”

Leonard had provided the Cardinals with another chance to watch his distinctive amble after connecting for a solo homer off Joe Magrane in the third inning.

His left arm at his side, his right arm pumping in motion with his gait, Leonard shifted into low as he rounded first base and ultimately walked the last few feet of his triumphal tour.

He has now homered in each of the three playoff games, becoming only the fourth player in championship series history to have hit at least one home run in three straight games of the same series.

Have the Cardinals, who rallied from a 4-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, seen enough. Bob Forsch may have been sending Leonard a message two innings later when he hit the Hac-Man high on the left arm with a 1-and-1 fastball.

“Somewhere, some time, somebody will pay,” Leonard said later, leaving no doubt that he thought the pitch was intentional.

“If I had known the game was going to turn out the way it did,” he said, “I’d have gone to the mound and kicked some butt.

“It was still early, we were winning and I didn’t want to run the risk of being thrown out. I’ve charged the mound only twice in my career and I made the decision based on my feeling that there was too much involved.

“He’s a veteran pitcher,” Leonard said. “He did what he had to do. I don’t mind getting hit, but I don’t like it when a pitcher comes up with his pitch as high as he did. He was definitely throwing at me, and you can be sure now that some of their hitters are going to have to keep their heads up.”

There was no attempt at retaliation by the San Francisco pitchers.

Atlee Hammaker had a 4-0 lead when Leonard was hit. Was Leonard disappointed that Hammaker made no apparent attempt to even the score.

“Roger runs the club,” Leonard said, alluding to Manager Roger Craig. “Atlee had his rhythm. He was pitching a great game. Why disrupt anything?

“The Cardinals got away with it, but I’m thinking we’ll kick . . . before it’s over. Maybe it will be a big hit. Maybe something else. It can take a lot of different forms.”

Did Craig endorse Leonard’s view? Did he think Forsch delivered a purpose pitch?

“I don’t know,” he said. “Nobody knows that except one person.”

That one person shook his head.

“We set up to pitch Leonard inside, and the pitch ran too far inside,” said Forsch, who worked two scoreless innings in relief of Magrane, eventually gaining the win. “I wasn’t trying to hit him. They already had a runner on base, and we were already down by four runs. It would have been foolish to compound the situation. I don’t like some of the things Leonard does, but I didn’t throw at him.”

The Cardinals’ dissatisfaction with Leonard has been festering. They didn’t like it when he demeaned Greg Mathews’ fastball and their team as a whole in St. Louis. They don’t like the way he runs the bases after his home runs.

“It’s the way he kind of struts around,” second baseman Tommy Herr said of the Leonard style. “It shows up the pitcher and the team. It’s obviously not my style.”

Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog said he would have no comment on the Forsch pitch. Of Leonard himself, Herzog said his primary concern is preventing the home run, not how Leonard responds to them.

“I think you have to laugh about it,” he said. “Jeff has always done that.”

The Cardinals eventually turned off the Giants’ music, and that fifth inning seemed to be pivotal.

Kevin Mitchell singled, Leonard was hit by the pitch and Candy Maldonado reached base on an error. The bases were loaded with one out, but Chili Davis popped up and Will Clark flied out. It was as if the Cardinals had taken the bat away from Leonard and the momentum away from the Giants.

Leonard saw it in the same light.

“I think that me being hit and them pitching out of the bases-loaded (situation) gave them a boost,” he said. The Cardinals ultimately scored four runs on five singles in the seventh, but it didn’t change the Hac-Man’s view that the Giants are the superior team.

“One lousy inning again,” he said, remembering the collection of bloops with which St. Louis had beaten Rick Reuschel in Busch Stadium. “Another typical Cardinal inning . . . single, single, single with some speed off the bench.

“Do I still think we’re better? Definitely. We’ll be back, man. I’ll be back. Bet on it.”