Expos Rattle Gossage and Defeat Padres, 8-5

If any team in the National League West is going to challenge the Padres, it had better make its intentions clear, and soon.

That was the message from the Padres as they returned home Tuesday night from one of the most uplifting trips in their history, and lost to the Montreal Expos, 8-5, before a crowd of 19,328.

The game was similar in texture to Monday’s loss in Philadelphia, featuring a couple of futile Padre comebacks that still added depth to the team’s mounting confidence.

But an unsettling night by pitchers Eric Show, Goose Gossage and Tim Stoddard served to dilute the euphoric feeling that has enveloped the club.

First-inning home runs by Steve Garvey and Kevin McReynolds provided Show a 3-0 lead, which was deceiving, because this one was going to be anything but routine.

After the Expos gained a tie, due in part to some sloppiness by Show, Garvey drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth.

The lead changed again before the Padres called upon their bullpen stopper, Gossage, with the game tied 5-5, in the eighth inning.

The Expos, after angering Gossage with some bench jockeying, got two runs on a double by Andre Dawson. They picked up another run in the ninth off the struggling Stoddard.

This was the opener of a nine-game home stand, which precedes a taxing two-week trip that includes 15 games in 13 days.

The attitude among the players is, if they make it through the upcoming swing to Cincinnati, Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles with their lead intact, they will be difficult, if not impossible to overtake the rest of the season.

The Padres are a team whose confidence has never been higher.

After a 7-2 rampage through three Eastern cities that enabled them to pad their lead by two games in the NL West, the Padres were making joyful noises before facing the Expos.

“Put it this way,” Kurt Bevacqua said, “not too much would rattle our cages right now.”

“We have a notably better club than we had a year ago, and we definitely have the capability to win by 12 games again.”

Tony Gwynn, who shares Bevacqua’s confidence, identified Houston as the most likely challenger.

“I thought in spring training the Astros would be the toughest contender,” he said, “but we’re the champs and somebody is going to have to knock us off to get that pennant away from us.”

If anything could rattle the cage, more setbacks like Tuesday’s should suffice.

The Padres brought a lot of problems on themselves against Montreal.

Show had difficulty in the third, permitting two runs via a single, two wild pitches and a walk to the pitcher, Bryn Smith, who led off the inning.

There were further problems in the fourth when the Expos tied it, 3-3. Following a leadoff double by Tim Wallach, an error by Show helped set up the tying run on a sacrifice fly.

Thanks to the Garv, the Padres went back ahead, 4-3, in the fifth. With two out, Gwynn collected his second single of the night, then Garvey dropped a double that landed just inside the right-field line.

There were the familiar cries of “Gar-vey, Gar-vey” for the San Diego first baseman, who has 26 runs batted in, third on the club.

Show left an inning later after Herm Winningham tripled over the head of center fielder Kevin McReynolds. Luis DeLeon got Mike Fitzgerald on a pop to short, but U.L. Washington, pinch-hitting for Gary Lucas, dumped a single into left to bring the Expos even again, 4-4.

Then the strategists took a bow. After Tim Raines was walked intentionally and Vance Law fouled out, Padre Manager Dick Williams replaced DeLeon with Craig Lefferts.

This prompted a rare pinch-hitting appearance by Dawson, and he stroked a single to right, snapping an 0-for-20 slump and scoring Washington.

The Padres, who had engaged in one of these back-and-forth affairs the day before in Philadelphia, made it 5-5 in the sixth. A single by Carmelo Martinez scored Terry Kennedy, who doubled with one out.

If the Padres have any reservations about their chances, it relates to the instability of the bullpen. That is, with the gigantic exception of Gossage.

The Expos took the liberty of riling the Goose, who stepped off the mound before throwing a pitch to Fitzgerald in the eighth. He gestured angrily at the Expo bench before firing his first pitch into the dirt, out of Kennedy’s reach.

Fitzgerald then singled sharply to left and Washington bunted safely. Dawson doubled them in to give Montreal a 7-5 lead and result in the year’s first loss for Gossage.