Martinez Enjoys His Opening Day : His Two Homers Give Padres 8-3 Victory Before 54,490

Back during batting practice, where the home runs aren’t really home runs, Carmelo Martinez had hit one over the fence, a message to one and all. He said it was no big deal, and teammate Jerry Royster laughed at that.

“That’s right,” Royster said. “He says he’s played in a World Series, so Opening Day is nothing,” Royster said, winking.

But this was a big deal, only because Martinez made a big deal out of it. In his first game back from a hand injury, in his first game of 1985, Martinez hit two real home runs, including a grand slam in the seventh inning. And the Padres defeated the San Francisco Giants, 8-3, in front of its largest regular-season crowd in San Diego history.

Exactly 54,490 paid to watch, paid to scream. After Martinez’s second home run, the grand slam, Manager Dick Williams replaced starter and eventual winner Eric Show (2-0) with Goose Gossage, and Gossage gave up a run, hitting a batter and yielding two singles. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

So Williams sent a pinch-hitter up for Gossage and had Luis DeLeon finish. He did finish it, and the Padres evened their record at 3-3.

And Williams had predicted that the return of Martinez would change his team’s weak offensive production. Martinez actually had been ready to play in the season opener, having responded to treatment after hand surgery. But he’d been on the disabled list, so he couldn’t play.

So he sat and itched and waited.

For this.

“And you’ve got to forget about it, too” Martinez said. “It’s over. I hit two home runs. So what. I used to think ‘hit home runs, hit home runs.’ But there’s so many games left.”

And back in the very beginning of this evening, when fireworks were fireworks and not home runs, Padre first baseman Steve Garvey thanked the fans here. He had lined himself up before a solitary microphone, looking very presidential, and said: “ . . . Last year was dedicated to Ray Kroc and his love of baseball . . . It was the year we all came together as a city and a baseball team . . . We made one of the greatest comebacks in baseball to win the National League, and we truly believe we couldn’t have done it without you, our 10th man . . . We’d like for you to share with us the raising of the 1984 (National League) championship flag.”

The people raised, and so did the flag. There were fireworks then, rockets red glare, bombs bursting in air. It was truly patriotic and truly touching. Garvey, the Padre senator, had to love it.

And then came the other fireworks, the Padre offense that had rested earlier this season. When San Diego was losing games in San Francisco and Atlanta, Williams had said the injuries to Alan Wiggins and Martinez were definitely damaging to his team, and he must be commended for his evaluation because it seemed to be true on Monday night.

The Padres and Show fell behind, 2-0, in the third inning when Dan Gladden hit a two-run single to center, driving in Chris Brown and Jose Uribe. But Show, who had beaten the Giants 3-0 in San Francisco, still looked to be throwing strong, rarely getting behind hitters, usually throwing strikes on the very first pitch.

Not that Show was as good as he was in San Francisco because he wasn’t. He had not walked a batter at Candlestick, and he walked Brown in the third inning on a high fastball. Later, he walked Manny Trillo.

Still, the Padre offense overshadowed Show this time, mainly because it existed. In the fourth inning against Giant starter Atlee Hammaker, Tony Gwynn began a rally with a triple to right-center field, a triple of consequence because it was Gwynn’s first hit after 13 hitless at-bats.

The ball hit the outfield fence on the fly, and third-base coach Ozzie Virgil gave Gwynn the signal to go for three. And it looked to be like a close play because Chili Davis had fielded it cleanly and had thrown to the infield. So Virgil signaled for Gwynn to slide, which meant he’d have to go down on his injured ribs.

But the Giant infield botched the relay, and there’d been no need for a slide, which was unfortunate because Gwynn certainly didn’t need the aggravation.

But he played on, and scored on Garvey’s lined double that rolled to the fence in right-center. Garvey then stood and watched as Terry Kennedy hit a 1-2 pitch over the wall in right. The score was 3-2, Padres.

“I don’t see (pitches) too good during the day,” Kennedy said. “I see the rotation better at night. Pitchers just seem to be more defined. There’s no glare from the fans or the outfield fence. I guess I’m accustomed to night games.”

And it’s interesting that Kennedy hit the home run off of Hammaker, who had frustrated Kennedy in San Francisco. Kennedy had ended spring training with a 10-game hitting streak, but had gone 0 for 10 to start the season.

Now, though, he’s hit in his last four games and is back in a groove. And he’s been strong defensively as well, as he’s thrown out four of five runners trying to steal, including two Monday night.

So the crowd was playing like a 10th man after Kennedy’s blast, and before they’d sat down, Martinez hit another home run, the first back-to-back Padre homers since July 31, 1979 (Kurt Bevacqua and Dave Winfield).

Martinez’s home run went to left, and only showed that he was truly healthy. Wiggins apparently isn’t as healthy as Martinez, because there was some doubt as to whether he’d play on his injured knee Monday. He’d been cleared by two doctors, and Williams put him in the lineup. But Williams said he wanted to wait for Dr. Cliff Colwell’s final opinion since Colwell is the team’s main orthopedic surgeon. Colwell gave approval, and Wiggins was in.

He did nothing out of the ordinary really, trying a drag bunt on his first at-bat, grounding out on two others and flying out on another. At least he played.

Padre Notes

In the ninth inning, Steve Garvey dropped a lazy pop up in foul territory, ending the longest consecutive-game errorless streak for a first baseman at 193 games. He did not pout at all. He went back to his position and played on. “It was on the dead run,” he said. “Those are the toughest. I was fortunate to go that long. All good things come to an end.” . . . Carmelo Martinez’s grand slam came off Giant reliever Greg Minton, who made his first appearance of the season Monday. Earlier, Minton had developed elbow problems. . . . Giant starting pitchers coming into this game had a combined ERA of 0.79. On Monday, all the Padre runs were earned.