Padres Flex New Muscle for Dodgers

Way, way back in the Padre training room, Tim Flannery heard Tony Gwynn shouting, although he wasn’t sure what all the ruckus was about.

“Biceps,” Gwynn was saying. “Way to go, Biceps.”

And, apparently, Gwynn was congratulating Flannery for hitting a three-run homer, a homer that came in a five-run second inning and led the Padres and LaMarr Hoyt to a 10-4 victory over the Dodgers and Orel Hershiser Wednesday night. But calling him Biceps probably is an overstatement, considering Flannery is 5 foot 11 and weighs 176.

But then, Wednesday night’s game wasn’t exactly typical, considering Hershiser, who had shut out the Padres on a one-hitter and a two-hitter this season, gave up six earned runs and eight hits. The Padres had been scared to death of him (batting coach Deacon Jones said hitting him is like hitting an anvil because “your bat rattles”), but they overcame a 2-0 lead, led 6-4 and then scored four runs off reliever Steve Howe in the seventh to secure it.

The Padres’ lead over the Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds in the National League West is five games.

Said Hoyt (10-4), who has won eight straight games: “Anyone can win with nine or 10 runs.”

Strangely, Hoyt wasn’t sharp either, although he went the distance. He yielded seven hits, including Pedro Guerrero’s 18th homer in the fourth and Greg Brock’s 11th homer in the seventh. He admits this was a lucky one. For instance, three times he fielded ground balls and almost threw them away.

“Yeah, every time I threw over to Garv, I’d throw a good sinker,” Hoyt said. “It’d been great if I could throw those to the plate.”

But he got by with that slow breaking ball, the one that he uses as a changeup. Those are the ones that usually get hit out for homers. Last year, when he played for the Chicago White Sox, he gave up 31 homers, second most in the American League.

As for Hershiser, he settled down after that second inning.

“I had great stuff and great velocity,” Hershiser said. “But I had no location early.”

Gwynn, who had two of the three Padre hits against Hershiser before Wednesday night, went 0 for 5 this time, but said: “When he gets it down, he’s hard to hit. But he got his pitches up, and those other guys were hammering it. Not me, though.”

Said Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda: “If you look at the inning, it could’ve been a lot different. He made a great pitch on Flannery, and he hit it to the opposite field. So he deserves it if he can do that. I never thought he could hit a pitch that far.”

Flannery, who has six career home runs, threatened to break out the Biceps T-shirts.

“I’m good for maybe one or two a year,” he said. “I’m tapped out.”

Flannery could be out of the lineup, too. Howe, who wasn’t close all night, hit Flannery in the hand in the seventh inning, and he’ll have X-rays today, although some thought he might have those X-rays taken Wednesday night.

“Not tonight,” Flannery said. “I’m going for a couple beers.”

There was some question as to whether Flannery leaned into the pitch that Howe threw, and it’s known that Flannery’s high school coach used to give players milk shakes if they’d take a pitch to the body. So Lasorda came out to argue, but apparently because he thought Flannery had been trying to bunt.

“If you get hit trying to bunt, it’s no hit batter,” Lasorda said. “The umpire (Greg Bonin) said he got hit coming back (from his bunt stance).”

Meanwhile, Howe, who had only given up two earned runs in his last six appearances was saying later: “I stunk . . . I stunk.”

By the way, Howe gave up a homer to Steve Garvey, Garvey’s 12th of the season.

“One of my better swings,” Garvey said.

Not one of the Dodgers’ better pitching nights.

Dodger Notes Manager Tom Lasorda flip-flopped Steve Sax and Dave Anderson in the batting order, dropping Sax from first to eighth and batting Anderson leadoff. Both Sax and Anderson came into the game with four hits in their last 30 at-bats. Anderson was batting .190, Sax .226. . . . Pedro Guerrero’s fourth-inning home run was his 14th this month, tying the National League record for the month set by Pittsburgh’s Ralph Kiner in 1947 and matched by Philadelphia’s Mike Schmidt in 1977. . . . Lasorda, when told that Giant Manager Jim Davenport said no one would catch the Padres this season: “He’s entitled to his opinion. I can remember when a lot of people said in 1983--Whitey Herzog and I think (George) Bamberger, after they’d played the Braves--that there was no way anyone was going to catch Atlanta. But we did.” . . . Padres rookie Ed Wojna, scheduled to pitch against Fernando Valenzuela this afternoon: “I’ve never seen him (Valenzuela) in person, only on TV. I think I saw him on the Game of the Week. It seems like the Dodgers are always on TV on Saturdays and Mondays.” . . . Goose Gossage, who missed three games with back spasms caused by a sneeze, was back in the Padre bullpen Wednesday. . . . Mariano Duncan’s play on Garry Templeton’s fifth-inning grounder Tuesday night ranks as the Dodgers’ finest defensive play of the season. Duncan went behind second base, fully extended his glove to grab the ball, executed a 360-degree spin and threw out Templeton, who can run. “I say to myself, ‘Keep going, you never know,’ ” Duncan said. “I don’t care if it looks like a base hit, I just keep going.” Duncan recently moved out of Guerrero’s house into a condo owned by Guerrero, which Duncan is sharing with Guerrero’s brother. The rent, Guerrero said, is free.