Manager Whitey Herzog waved the white towel for the T.K.O., lifting Magrane with one out, bringing on Cris Carpenter. He quickly tidied up the bases by giving up a three-run homer to Gary Redus before retiring the side with the Cards down 6-0.

Carpenter gave up four more runs in the third on a walk, a sacrifice, a wild pitch and four hits, one of them a brain-cramp double that fell between Vince Coleman in left and Milt Thompson in center. Coleman finally retrieved the ball and fired it to shortstop Ozzie Smith, who skipped a throw in the general, but not precise, direction of home plate. Inexplicably, catcher Tom Pagnozzi received the error for not picking up the wide, low throw.

That made it 10-0 after three innings of a game that ended 12-4, and that made the normally genteel Cardinals fans extremely restless. They booed and they cheered derisively, but refrained from throwing their ''Book Day'' souvenirs on the field, for which the authors are grateful.

Things didn't get any worse after that, but they didn't get much better, either. Rain threatened the game in the middle of the fourth inning, but it didn't fall in earnest until after the game, washing out the annual Fathers-Kids game. This was too bad, in that the quality of play undoubtedly would have been better than the first game's.