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S P C * ' S :Pitching Gives Dodgers an Edge in SeriesSo it comes down to the Yankees and Dodgers, again. Could a season so exciting end so predictably? These two teams are unquestionably the best in baseball, as they were last year, when the Yankees and Reggie finished Los Angeles in six. Whether they can repeat is a different story. This is a looser, happier Yankee team than last year's champs, but the starting pitching is very thin. After Guidry, who won%u2019t be available til Wednesday or Friday, there isn%u2019t much, expecially since both Ed Figuerora and Catfish Hunter had nothing against the Royals. The Dodgers boast five strong starters and arelief pitcher, Terry Forster, who is the equal of Rich Gossage. The pick here is the Dodgers in six.The Yankees capped their marvelous stretch drive with an efficient and confident rookie Jim Beattie in the playoff opener. The Yankees knocked Dennis Leonard out early and spotted Beattie a big lead. The kid pitched brilliantly for five innings, and Ken Clay came on to finish for him in a surprisingly strong performance. The easy 10-4 win enabled the Yanks to earn a split in Kansas City after the Royals blasted Ed Figuerora on route to a 7-1 win in the second game.Game 3 was a classic, with Catfish Hunter gamely hanging in while throwing garbage, despite three home runs by George Brett. Catfish handed Rich Gossage a 4-3 lead after seven, but Gossage promptly gave up two runs in the eighth. Thurman Munson's two-run shot in to the leftfield bleachers iced the game in the bottom of the inning.Royals manager Whitey Herzog had only himself to blame for the Munson'longball. Playing the book like it was written in stone, Herzog brought in righthander Doug Bird to pitch to righty Munson, even though Bird had trouble getting the batboy out in batting practice thisyear. Bird was apparently better in Herzog's eyes than lefty A1 Hrabowsky, only one of baseball%u2019s best relievers.The disappointing loss left the Royals with a must-win game facing Ron Guidry at the Stadium. They gave it a hell of a shot. When Brett led off the game with a triple and scored on Hal MacRae%u2019s single, it looked the Royals might get to Guidry. But, though Guidry was hardly at the top of his game, that run was all the scoring for the Royals for the rest of this season.Dennis Leonard, the Royals 20-game winner, redeemed himself for Tuesday%u2019s dismal showing byGary Hoenig%u2019sBottom LineObservations on news from Fantasyland this past week: Watched the Cubans fight some American amateurs at the Garden Friday. Best show was the crowd, evenly dived between local Puerto Ricans and Cubans, all Latin, and mostly non-political, vds behind me were pulling for the Americans, until a Cuban mied Martinez came on. Then one of the pretty young girls i ted yelling, %u201c Martinez, Martinez!%u201c Sensing a heart rending h. man angle, 1 asked why she had switched to the Cubans. %u201c My name is Martinez too,%u201d she told me, laughing. Martinez is like Smith in Spanish.The judges played a different kind of game. The three were alternately comprised of two members from one country and one from another. I scored the first three bouts wrong, and would have done better checking who outnumbered who in the judges%u2019 box than watching the fights. The more experienced Cubans eventually outmanned the Americans, but it didn%u2019t matter much to the crowd, which was turned on all night.Teofilc Stevenson was the real attraction of the night, and the big Cuban heavyweight was a major disappointment. He is ponderous and slow, and takes a lot of punches. He was clearly behind in the closing seconds of his bout with Jimmy Clark when the overanxious Clark walked into a monstrous left. Dazed but game, Clark came back, vas bombed by a huge right hand. End of fight.have some fun with Ali in exhibitions, but anyOn Fights,Deathand theReturn ofW interStevenson ufr\\%u00ab4kufiiiioacquisition. But the Knicks need the Peart as a spot player.Getting rid of Roy 3oe was the most important move the Nets made in the offseason. Otherwise, the Nets have Bernard King, and some good looking rookies, and some crazy people in the backcourt. For some unexplained reason, they traded play maker Kevin Porter for shooter Eric Money, leaving them with two starters%u2014Money and Super John Williamson%u2014who love to put it up. Eddie Jordan is a fine sixth man who really explodes coming off the bench.pitching a strong four-hitter. But two of those four hits were big ones, a Graig Nettles shot into the upper deck to tie the score in the second, and a Roy White screamer just inside the right field foul pole to win it in the sixth.The Goose came on to save it in the ninth after Guidry yielded a leadoff double to Amos Otis. Herzog, still playing by his favorite book, pinch hit for the experienced A1 Cowens with nervous rookie Clint Hurdle, who is left-handed and a long way from being a major league hitter. Gossage struck out Hurdle without even throwing hard. -G.H.GriddersO verturnTraditionNew York%u2019s football teams have apparently improved to the point where they are now completely unpredictable. That is a welcome change from the certainty of weekly humiliation that was the fans%u2019 lot in previous years, but it does leave the experts behind the typewriters looking like turkeys from week to week.Consider Sunday%u2019s results: The Jets, losers of three straight, and without injured quarterback Richard Todd, figured to be headed for a downer on Sunday. Their opponent was Buffalo, winners of two in a row, with the A.F.C.%u2019s number one passer, Joe Ferguson, facing a Jets%u2019 pass defense that ranked second to last in the N.F.L. The Bills were three point favorites going in, but the smart money said Buffalo, and big.So the Jets racked up 35 first-half points, a club record, and blew the Bills out of Shea 45-14. Ferguson managed only a 10-24, 140-yard day, with two interceptions. The Jet ground game racked up 231 yards (91 for Kevin Long, who scored three times). Free safety Burgess Owens returned from an injury to return an interception for a 40-yard touchdown. Bruce Harper scored on an 81-yard punt return. Much maligned cornerbacks Ed Taylor and Bobby Jackson yielded only two passes to wide receivers for the entire game (Jackson also recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass). The special teams added a blocked kick and a fumble recovery on a kickoff.The Giants were soundly trounced by the Cowboys, 24-3. After tasting victory over the 49ers two weeks ago, Giant fans were talking playoffs. Now the same questions about the offense that plagued John McKay%u2019s staff last year have cropped up again. Harvey Martin and Co. tossed Joe Pisarcik around like a rag doll, and Jerry Golsteyn was treated likewise when Pisarcik was knocked silly late in the first half. So much for the revitalized offensive line.Meanwhile, the 3-4 wrinkle the Giants tried helped the defense pressure Staubach all day with Gary Jeter particularly effective, but they never really came up with the big play to keep him from s c o r in g . T h a n k ih e p a s s d e f e n s e fo r that: The coverage was sloppy and porous, and the linebackers, particularly Brad Van Pelt, were as guilty as the backs. The depressingly easy win by the Cowboys leaves the Giants in an emotional hole. A home game against Tampa Bay may help them out of it.Page 42, THE PHOENIX, October 12,1978