Ripken’s Switch To Third Puts The Streak In Peril

The end of The Streak is arriving. If you put your ear to the infield dirt, you can hear it coming. Slowly, inexorably, one year at third base is doing to Cal Ripken what 15 years at shortstop couldn’t. It’s wearing him down.

On Tuesday night, Orioles manager Davey Johnson removed Ripken after seven innings of a game that Baltimore led by six runs. “I was trying to preserve” Ripken, explained Johnson on Wednesday. “I asked him, ‘Is your back hurting you?’ He said, ‘A little bit.’ When your back is in spasm, that’s the most debilitating thing you can have.

“The first four innings, he looked like he needed back surgery. But toward the end, he loosened up… . I figured he’d had enough. He’s said that he’d let me know. But I’ve come to know that with him, he never lets you know.”

If you’ve played in 2,408 games in a row, but your manager thinks you look like you “need back surgery,” what are the odds of reaching 2,500?

Ripken maintained again Thursday that his back spasms “aren’t related to playing third base.” He says it’s a recurrence of a nagging career-long problem that flares up a few times every season. This season, at third, the demands for a deeper crouch and more reckless head-first dives after hard smashes were shaking up the old Ripken spine.

Walker soars as Rockies slide

While Larry Walker chases one of baseball’s most hallowed marks, his team is sliding into a hole from which it may not recover. The Colorado Rockies are last in the N.L. West, eight games under .500.

The Rockies have lost six straight and 13 of 14. Walker, leading the majors with a .402 average, said the team’s slump is putting a damper on his remarkable season.

“We’re trying to get ourselves on track,” Walker said Friday after a team meeting.

“Anything I do this season is not going to be as gratifying if we’re in the cellar. It’s going to be hard to keep these numbers up if we’re going bad. I’m not going to go out with the same intensity.”

Marlins trade Rapp to Giants

The Florida Marlins traded starting pitcher Pat Rapp to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for minor-league pitchers Brandon Leese and Bobby Rector.

In addition, the Marlins have recalled right-handed pitcher Livan Hernandez from Triple-A Charlotte.

Hernandez, who is 2-0 with a 4.11 ERA in three starts this season for the Marlins, will move into Rapp’s spot in the rotation and start today’s game against the San Diego Padres. Hernandez was 5-3 with a 3.98 ERA at Charlotte.

Rapp, a right-hander, was 4-6 with a 4.47 ERA in 19 starts this season. He was selected by the Marlins as their fifth pick in the first round of the 1992 expansion draft from the Giants.

Rapp is the Marlins’ career leader with 115 starts, 37 wins, 665 innings pitched and seven complete games. He is the only Marlins pitcher to throw more than 100 innings in four consecutive seasons.

Leese, a 21-year old right-hander, was 7-5 with a 3.05 ERA in 19 starts at San Jose of the California League. He has allowed 99 hits, 38 earned runs, 46 walks and struck out 99 batters in 112 innings.