Niekro Baffles Padres for 200th Win

Joe Niekro was sipping a celebratory beer when a clubhouse attendant popped the cork on a bottle of champagne and placed it on ice.

So overcome was he by the moment, Niekro took a sip of the champagne from a paper cup, then flung the cup aside and returned to his brew. A real down-to-earth guy, and the last of the original Padres still active as a ballplayer.

The Houston veteran had just defeated the Padres, 3-2, Tuesday night for the 200th win of his career before a crowd of 36,318.

“It’s nice to get No. 200 on the first try,” said Niekro, who last month had a bit more trouble in becoming the winningest pitcher in Astro history.

“I had a good knuckler tonight, and I established it early. That was important because the Padres are a good fastball-hitting club, and it helps if you can make them swing the bat.”

Niekro permitted six hits before getting two innings of relief aid from Jeff Calhoun.

Now, along with brother Phil, the Niekros can get serious about becoming baseball’s winningest brother combination. The Perrys, Gaylord and Jim, have 529 victories, 39 ahead of Phil (291) and Joe.

There are reports Phil Niekro, now with the New York Yankees, may soon be named manager of his old club, the Atlanta Braves, but that wouldn’t deter the quest for the brotherly record. “Who says Phil would have to quit pitching?” Joe Niekro said.

Niekro said he would like to pitch another five or six years, but his more immediate goal is simply victory No. 201.

The Astros, who had taken advantage of five walks issued by losing pitcher Ed Wojna, got the winning run when pinch-hitter Phil Garner doubled off Padre reliever Craig Lefferts in the eighth inning.

Garner was considerably more worked up than Niekro over the night’s developments.

“I was so excited I couldn’t hardly stand it,” Garner said, spitting out double negatives instead of tobacco. “My biggest problem was trying to calm down because I was so excited when I got called on.”

Garner’s double into the left-field bullpen gained Houston a split of the two-game series that had begun more happily for the Padres when Bruce Bochy delivered a game-winning homer a night earlier.

The Padres thus ended a 12-game home stand with an 8-4 record and depart today on a Midwestern trip to Pittsburgh, Chicago and St. Louis.

Manager Dick Williams, who has a profound dislike for walks, got a bellyful in this game.

Asked to assess the work of Wojna, Williams said, “The five walks came back to haunt him. He regrouped and threw well (after a difficult first inning), but they got the winning run as the result of a walk.”

Wojna, who was making only his fourth big league start, walked three hitters in the first inning and was fortunate the Astros got only one run.

After the Padres had taken a 2-1 lead in the fifth, Houston tied it in the sixth and went ahead in the eighth.

With one out, Wojna walked Denny Walling and permitted a single to Jose Cruz before Garner came to the plate to hit for Jerry Mumphrey. Williams elected to replace Wojna with Lefferts.

“My heart was really pumping,” Garner said. “I was glad to get the chance, and I wouldn’t give you a plug nickel for a player who wouldn’t want to be up there in that situation. I’ve looked foolish sometimes, but this time I got a high pitch, maybe a fastball, and I was able to handle it.”

Wojna, predictably, was downcast over his lack of control.

“I got myself here by not walking people, but I’m not living up to that,” he said. “I was leaving my sinker up and away early in the game, then I went to my cross-seam fastball later, and got my forkball working.”

Wojna, 1-1, walked two, four and one in his three previous starts.

Niekro, 7-7 this year and 24-10 during his career against the Padres, had a few control problems of his own. Three passed balls contributed to both San Diego runs.

But a knuckler that’s tough to catch can be even tougher to hit, and so it went for the Padres.

“His ball was hopping all over the place,” Williams said.

The knuckler has been very, very good to the brothers Niekro.