Padres Are Shown Up by Cubs, 7-3 : Sandberg Lives Up to His Billing With Two Homers

Harry Caray, the big Cubbie in the sky (or press box), has proclaimed Ryne Sandberg “The Golden Boy of Chicago Sports,” which might be unfair to Walter Payton and Michael Jordan and even more unfair to Sandberg, who already puts enough pressure on himself.

The Chicago Cubs publicity department thinks it imperative that its daily notes to the media begin with Sandberg’s statistics. The headline on Tuesday’s release was “Sandberg Hot Since April,” which is true but of no help to Sandberg, who talks softly and can’t help it if he carries a big stick.

But since he does, he must learn to cope. And, apparently, he finally has, considering he hit two mammoth home runs in Tuesday’s easy 7-3 Cub victory over the Padres, showing once and for all that his April slump, the slump that stumped Chicago, is over.

Needless to say, the people here are charmed. Sandberg had won the MVP award last season, and when he began this season going 1 for 20, he received much mail, including batting tips from eighth grade students. Whether the eighth graders knew it or not, it was counterproductive because it made him think too much, and the worst way to try to hit is think while you do it. Fortunately, Sandberg doesn’t have to think much these days; his average is up to .286.

But Eric Show does have a lot to think about, and that’s a different problem. Show, the Padre starter who gave up both home runs to Sandberg, got the loss Tuesday, his record falling to 7-6. More than anything else, the fear is not that Show has lost his fastball but whether he’s lost his cool. He’s actually had a decent season, but the Padres have not scored many runs behind him, and it’s possible that it’s weighing much too heavily on his mind, causing him to falter.

It all could be psychological.

“With him, it could be,” Manager Dick Williams said. “You don’t know.”

One thing that Williams does know, however, is that Tuesday’s loss, coupled with the Dodgers’ 8-3 win over the Pirates, cut the Padres’ NL West lead to 2 1/2 games over Los Angeles.

Tuesday, Show left the game after four innings (he gave up nine hits and six runs) and then left the clubhouse before he could be approached by the media. He was found wandering out the door and was pleasant, saying only: “I just don’t feel like talking.” He walked away then into a mass of Cub fans, who, had they recognized him, would have patted him on the back for a job well done.

On Sandberg’s first home run, which came with Billy Hatcher on base in the first inning, Show threw an inside fastball on a 3-1 pitch, a pitch Sandberg timed perfectly. He stroked it over the screen fence in left field and out onto Waveland Street next to Wrigley Field. “I didn’t think he could hit a ball that far,” Williams said. “The big guys hit ones like that.”

Cub Manager Jim Frey, though, said Sandberg’s a big guy.

“I’d say he’s hit three or four like that,” Frey said. “He hit one to left-center once that looked like it’d hit the gray house out there. When you stand next to him, you don’t think he’s real big, but he’s bigger than he appears.”

Said Sandberg, quietly: “Was it my furthest? It was a good one. Let’s put it that way.”

His second one was of lesser proportions, but it counted just the same, again bringing in two runs and making the score 4-0. It came in the second inning with winning pitcher Steve Trout on base. Show threw a slider that got up in the strike zone, and Sandberg put it in the left-center field bleachers.

Immediately, the Cub publicity staff got to work, pumping the writers and broadcasters with Sandberg stats. This was his first two-home run game since he’d hit two against Bruce Sutter last June. This was his first four-RBI game of the season. This was his 14th RBI in his last 21 games, half of his season total.

Meanwhile, the Padres were falling further behind in the fourth inning when Larry Bowa scored on a Hatcher sacrifice fly. Then Sandberg singled to left, stole second and went to third on Bruce Bochy’s throwing error. He scored on Thad Bosley’s bloop single to make the score 6-0.

And then Roy Lee Jackson, the new Padre reliever, stood up in the bullpen. This is the same Jackson who had come over in the Alan Wiggins’ trade with Baltimore and who had begun his Padre career at the Triple-A level one week ago. But, as expected, Luis DeLeon was sent down to Las Vegas on Tuesday, and here was Jackson, age 31 and number 39.

He began the fifth inning. The catcher, Bochy, admitted he was a little leery, considering he’d never seen Jackson throw before, but, later, said Jackson had good stuff. In some ways, that’s amazing since he flew all day from Las Vegas to meet the team. His plane was late, arriving at 2 p.m., but he made it over to the ballpark, was sent to the bullpen and then in the game.

He threw two innings, gave up just two hits and no runs. Afterward, Williams said: “We’ll use him long and middle relief to start out with. We’ll see if he can be a pre-Gossage guy.”

And while Jackson was decent, Trout (8-4) was even better. Of the 21 outs he got, 14 came on ground balls, which meant his sinker--his best pitch--was sinking. Jerry Davis, who started for Tony Gwynn (sore wrist) in right field, was asked what he thought of Trout and said, “Great fish, great fish. No, he was tough. That was the best left-handed sinker I’ve ever faced. And it helps when the umpire ( Bob Engel) was calling low ball strikes. He was getting strikes at the shins.”

Unfortunately for Trout, Steve Garvey is a shin-high hitter. Knowing this, Trout made an adjustment when Garvey came up in the sixth inning with two men on base, throwing him a belt-high pitch, instead, which seemed like nice strategy.

But Garvey hit it deep to left-center for his 13th home run of the year.

“That was a good pitch and a bad pitch,” Trout said. “He’s a low-ball hitter, and I threw a good pitch that would normally be a bad pitch . . . But he saw that one coming. I closed my eyes, and he opened his wide.”

Now, prior to the game, Garvey had been booed by the Wrigley fans, who can’t seem to forget his memorable playoff home run of last season. And the Garv, who pays attention to those things, got on his hands and knees and begged for their forgiveness. They stopped booing.

But when he hit his home run, they resumed, and, naturally, threw the home run ball back onto the field.

Sandberg’s home runs, however, stay in the stands, if they aren’t hit over the stands.

Padre Notes

Pitcher Andy Hawkins revealed Tuesday that he has a cut on his right index finger, suffered on June 30. Hawkins, who has lost two straight games after winning 11 straight, said he might miss Thursday’s start in St. Louis and maybe the All-Star game, if he’s chosen. “It’s nothing major, but it’s very debilitating,” Hawkins said. “I can’t throw a slider or a cut fastball. If you go out there just throwing fastball, that’s crazy.” Last Saturday in Pittsburgh, Hawkins had a bad outing, yielding 10 hits and five runs in five innings. Was his cut finger to blame? “It had something to do with it, I’d say,” Hawkins said. Still, Manager Dick Williams and pitching coach Galen Cisco said they weren’t sure if Hawkins would necessarily miss his next start. “We have to talk about it,” Cisco said. “I don’t know yet. We have to wait and see how it (the finger) reacts.” . . . Reliever Luis DeLeon was told prior to Tuesday’s game that he’d been sent to the minors. “He was probably disappointed,” Williams said. “He was quiet. It’d be a different story if he were getting guys out, but I think he expected it.” DeLeon, who is flying to Puerto Rico to visit his ill mother before reporting to Las Vegas, had an 0-3 record with a 4.26 ERA. . . . This was Eric Show’s first regular season loss at Wrigley Field, and he is now 7-2 lifetime against the Cubs in the regular season. He lost a playoff game here last year, and this was his first game at Wrigley since then.