Gabe Alvarez

It has been a sensational start for Dodger first baseman Eric Karros, the finest of his career. He's ranked among the league leaders in nine offensive categories and entered Saturday's game batting .393 with four home runs and 20 runs batted in, leading all of baseball with 35 hits. Yet, there's one statistic that remains mind-boggling: Three stolen bases. Karros already has stolen more bases this season than in any other, and he is only one shy of equaling his career total.

San Diego Padre closer Trevor Hoffman became baseball's highest-paid reliever when he agreed to a $32 million, four-year contract extension through 2003, the Associated Press learned. Hoffman, 31, will be paid $4.1 million in 1999, the final year of an $8.4 million, three-year extension he signed in August 1996. Mark McGwire, who homered in each of the St.

Former Tiger Phil Nevin's two-out, two-run single led the Anaheim Angels to a 3-2 victory Wednesday night over slumping Detroit, the Tigers' ninth consecutive loss. Anaheim, which entered the game 1 1/2 games behind first-place Texas in the American League West, has won four games in a row. The Tigers have been swept in three consecutive series. Steve Sparks (6-2) gave up two runs and seven hits in 7 1/3 innings to improve to 3-0 in his last six starts.

With survival in the College World Series on the line, USC's Geoff Jenkins thought it was time to make a powerful statement. Words would not suffice. They never have with Jenkins, who possesses what is perhaps the biggest swing in college baseball--and is not shy about unleashing it. Jenkins made his point in the second inning against Oklahoma when he blasted a pitch from Ryan Minor over the 30-foot-high hitters' backdrop 408 feet away in center field.

The Chicago White Sox selected Jeff Liefer, a power-hitting third baseman at Long Beach State, with the 25th pick in the first round of major league baseball's amateur draft Thursday. Liefer led the 49ers in almost every offensive category, batting .354 with 13 home runs, 56 runs batted in and 63 runs. Liefer was chosen first-team All-Big West Conference and Baseball America named him to its All-American second-team. He is the 49ers' third first-round selection, but first position player.

Joey Hamilton pitched six strong innings and Tony Batista hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning as the Toronto Blue Jays beat the New York Yankees for the first time in eight tries this season, 3-1, Tuesday at New York. Hamilton (4-6) cruised through the first five innings, scattering three hits and facing just two over the minimum before Joe Girardi led off the sixth with his first homer since July 9, 1998, to tie it 1-1.

Former USC infielder Gabe Alvarez made an auspicious debut with the Detroit Tigers last week. It came against the St. Louis Cardinals, but was particularly painful for the San Diego Padres, who opted to protect as much pitching as possible in the expansion draft and chose to protect Marc Kroon over Alvarez on the 15-player list given the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Colorado Rockies put all-star right fielder Larry Walker on the 15-day disabled list Saturday with an elbow injury. Walker sat out Friday's 15-7 rout of the San Francisco Giants because of soreness in his right elbow, making the move retroactive to Thursday. The National League batting champion each of the last two years, Walker is hitting .347 with three home runs and 17 runs batted in in 30 games.

J.P. Roberge is still in the midst of his USC baseball career, but his name is already etched in history at the baseball Hall of Fame. Roberge, a junior first baseman from Arcadia, has his name inscribed on a plaque in Cooperstown, N.Y., for having won the most-valuable-player award at the 1991 Senior Babe Ruth World Series. Roberge's goal this season is to help the Trojans make some history of their own by landing their first College World Series berth in 16 years.