ANAHEIM, Calif. - Most hitters are eternally grateful that there's only one October.

Cold hands. Weird start times. A whole series full of 17-game winners on the mound.

And after a season of shrugging off the 0 for 12s and knowing there's always next series, there's the jarring realization that there is no next series, if too many guys go 0 for 12.

Alex Rodriguez is 6 for 44 in his past three series, a trend he's interrupting this year by not participating. Chipper Jones was 10 for 45 in his past three. Willie Mays had one home run in 25 postseason games and hit .247.

Eddie Murray was 4 for 27 in the '79 World Series and Gil Hodges 0 for 22 in 1952. Vladimir Guerrero is currently 11 for 60 in playoffs.

Do that in May and only the fantasy freaks really notice. Do it now and a whole franchise starts to weigh down your back.

So Mickey Hatcher, the Angels batting coach, is looking for somebody to take a lively bat and an uncluttered mind into Wednesday's batter's box against the Red Sox.

Somebody like Mickey Hatcher, Dodger stunt man, in the World Series 20 years ago.

"It didn't matter who was pitching, what the situation was," Hatcher said Tuesday. "I was going up there not thinking about the mechanics, the swing or anything. And I was squaring up everything."

Hatcher hit .238 against the Mets in the NL Championship Series but then ambushed Oakland with two home runs and seven hits in five games and a .368 average.

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But then Billy Hatcher of Cincinnati hit .404 for three series in 1990 and was 9 for 12 in a World Series upset of Oakland. That .750 average is the best for any single World Series.

B. Hatcher was a .264 hitter lifetime. M. Hatcher hit .293 in the '88 regular season and .280 lifetime, but he had one home run throughout '88, until he launched those first-inning bombs off Dave Stewart and Storm Davis.

Those are always the suspects in the postseason, the guys who normally get cropped out of the picture.

Marty Barrett's 13 hits in the '86 World Series is tied for first alltime, with Lou Brock and Bobby Richardson.

Reggie Jackson's five home runs in '77 remains a Series record, but among the guys with four are Willie Mays Aikens and Gene Tenace.

The top five guys in batting average for ANY postseason series are Jay Johnstone, Billy Hatcher, Gary Roenicke, Lloyd McClendon and David Ortiz.

So when Hatcher sees Mike Napoli rattle off 18 hits in his final 27 regular-season at bats, it reminds him of something.

But there is rarely a warning. In '88 Hatcher's average dove from .341 to .289 in 18 September days. Then he got eight hits in his final seven games of the regular season.

"Tommy (Lasorda) would hit-and-run with me a lot and I'd work on that in batting practice," he said. "That part of the game is so crucial. Our guys here have been having great sessions. In these last few weeks (after the Halos clinched the West) they've been taking their AB's and then they've been working on the cage during the rest of the game.

"Nothing's worse than seeing a guy go into the cage, pop one up to the left, then foul one off the top of the cage. It tells you he doesn't go in there with a game plan."

The Angels still rank 10th, 11th and ninth in runs, slugging percentage and on-base average but their new makeover lineup is far more likely to hit the scoreboard first.

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Garret Anderson hits second in front of Mark Teixeira, who hits in front of Guerrero. In Teixeira's two months, Guerrero has picked up 17 batting-average points to surpass .300 again. Add Torii Hunter and a healthier Howie Kendrick and the lineup card doesn't fall off a cliff anymore.

"And we've got (shortstop Erick) Aybar down there at the bottom, which sort of shakes things up going back to Figgy (Chone Figgins) at the top," Hatcher said.

"It's just a lot better feeling than going to Boston in the playoffs last year, knowing Garret had a bad eye and Gary Matthews Jr. was on the DL, and Casey Kotchman was sick and Kendrick and Figgy were banged up (Guerrero, too). And we were playing what turned out to be the best team in the game. We're better now, but we're facing great pitching and we know what can happen in the playoffs."

The Angels should know. They've been the team that makes it happen. They've also been the one that wonders what just did. It's the season for velocity.