Williams: We’ll Play Like It’s Last Game of Playoffs

In case you haven’t heard, we have a pennant race. Dick Williams let his Padres in on it before Thursday’s game with Pittsburgh. He called a rare team meeting and said: “Do you know what today is?”

“What’s today?” they asked him.

“It’s 18 games before the strike,” he answered.

“Oh yeah,” they said.

And then Dick Williams told them how they would proceed. He said if you’re a right-handed batter facing a left-handed pitcher late in a game, don’t be alarmed if he sends in a left-handed pinch-hitter. It might just be that this left-handed hitter hits this left-handed pitcher pretty good. The stats don’t lie. If you have a problem, come see him.

Also, he told pitchers to be ready for a quick hook. Don’t give up three first-inning runs and think you’ll have a chance to settle down. You’ll be settling down on the bench.

“We’ll play each game like the last game of the playoffs,” Dick Williams said Thursday after his Padres defeated Pittsburgh, 3-2.

Just 17 games to go.

And so, with a baseball strike so strikingly possible, the month of July takes on new meaning. Last Monday, the executive board of baseball’s Major League Players Assn. assigned Aug. 6 as the day they’d strike if they and the owners can’t come to an agreement. And it suddenly has made the Padres, and perhaps all of baseball, overtly paranoid.

For what if there’s a strike? And what if you’re in second place at the time? And what if the strike isn’t settled until right before the playoffs? Wouldn’t you want to be in first place?

“I hope it (a strike) doesn’t happen, but if we’re on top if it does, we’ll still be on top when we get back,” Tony Gwynn said.

So the second half has become a “Second 18.” Of course, there’s always the chance of a settlement, which would make it a second half again, but in the meantime, the Padres will proceed as if that won’t happen. Already, fifth starter Ed Wojna has been sent to the bullpen. There will be a four-man rotation from here on out.

Also, Williams said he’ll talk often to Padre player representative Terry Kennedy, just to know where negotiations stand. He’ll call his own front office, too, just so he has balanced opinions. He’ll make adjustments accordingly.

The Padre players have prepared for the worse. Tim Flannery began saving money last year, well aware of the strike possibilities.

“I went through it in ‘81,” Flannery said. “And it’s no fun. Actually, I was single then and living with some buddies on the beach. I had no bills. I could’ve struck for 10 years. But now I have a mortgage and a family. I can go for two seasons, and if we’re still striking after that, I guess I’ll become a brain surgeon.”

It’s not hard to guess whose side most fans are on. They think the players make enough money already, and Kennedy received a letter Thursday from a woman who closed by writing: “We outnumber you and (we) can’t do a thing about it.”

Said Kennedy: “When we say, as players, that we feel for the fans, we can say that, but they probably don’t believe it . . . There’d be no sympathy for us.

“But . . . if there is a strike, the only ones who’ll make out will be the fans. They won’t have to buy tickets.”

In the meantime, one down and 17 to go.

So who will be the important Padres? Who needs to have a good 17 games, or (in case there’s a miracle and it’s all settled) a good 73 games?

Logically, it’d be Tony Gwynn or Steve Garvey or Graig Nettles or Terry Kennedy or Kevin McReynolds or Carmelo Martinez or Garry Templeton. The name players.

But in the first half of this season, the largest surprise was the play of Timry Flanster, the second base combination of Tim Flannery and Jerry Royster.

They have given new meaning to the word platoon. In Pittsburgh, they celebrated July 4 together. Flannery was seen at a restaurant, asked whom he was there with, he said: “My better half,” for Royster was around the corner. A San Diego artist did 75 drawings of them together in uniform, promoted it at a local gallery and found that the place became packed. All of the Timry Flanster paintings were gone within hours.

Tim and Jerry put their heads together and began to think about marketing themselves. Nothing definite is planned, but there already is the “Flanster Box Seats For Kids” program, where both players donate excellent seats at Padre games to underprivileged children.

None of this would be possible if they weren’t performing well on the field. But they are. In the 23 games before Thursday, they had, together, batted .333 with 17 runs, 13 RBI, 19 walks and 2 hit-by-pitches for an on-base percentage of .471. They think alike, too. When Royster was hitting less than .200 in May, he borrowed Tony Gwynn’s bat (32 1/2 inches long and 31 ounces) and fell in love with it. Since then, Royster’s average has risen to .292.

Not that he’s superstitious, but Royster ordered two dozen new bats at that same size, all of which say “Tony Gwynn.”

“A dozen are for him,” Royster said. “Nah. I’m not superstitious. But I don’t want to hit like me. I want to hit like Tony Gwynn.”

Flannery began using the mini-bat last Sunday in St. Louis, and went 2-for-3. So Flannery says he will use it most of the time now. The bat he used to go 1-for-4 Thursday had three numbers on it--19 (Gwynn’s number), 3 (Royster’s number) and 11 (Flannery’s number). The 19 and 3 were crossed out.

“We have a chance to be stars, to be real great,” Royster said. “But Dick Williams isn’t banking on us to win the pennant for him . . . But if two guys who aren’t expected to have a good year and do. Well, that’s what people want. It’s the Rocky story.

“Who cares if Dale Murphy hits 40 home runs? People know he can hit, but can Timry Flanster win the pennant for the Padres?”

At third base, Graig Nettles must make it through the season. At 40, he is the oldest player, and Williams, well aware, has substituted Kurt Bevacqua for Nettles against certain left-handed pitchers.

But most of that substituting came recently when the Padres were playing games in the heat, games on artificial surfaces. Now, with the majority of their games at home, Nettles will play more often.

“I give him the option,” Williams said.

Of course, Nettles, proving there’s still a lot of kid in him, has yet to ask to come out of a game, or will he.

“I probably won’t,” said Nettles, whose best moment of the season probably came when he was mentioned on a Bruce Springsteen video. “If they’re paying me, I’d rather earn it. I’ll let him know if I’m tired, but it hasn’t come to that, and I doubt it will.”

Naturally, Nettles has his critics. Some say he doesn’t have much range at third, or is he hitting as consistently. But he was 14-for-30 (.467) in seven of his last eight games before the break, and his .392 on-base percentage is highest among Padre starters. He is second in the league in walks.

“A lot of times, they’ve pitched around me with runners in scoring position,” Nettles said. “If the guys behind me weren’t doing the job, I might swing at bad pitches. But the guys behind me are doing the job.”

Actually, the guys behind him weren’t doing the job recently. The Padres lost a five-game lead to the Dodgers in a week on the road, and Williams said he saw it coming at the prior home stand, where the middle men in his order hit only .120. Center fielder Kevin McReynolds, who had two important RBIs Thursday, had worried some Padre officials with his inconsistent play at the plate and in the field. They say he just isn’t aggressive enough. They don’t like his lackadaisical disposition, although it’s his personality to be that way.

Of McReynolds, Williams said: “I look for production on the field, both offensively and defensively. We have 18 games to go, and maneuvers can be made. I can’t wait too long. I have to go with what’s best to win a ballgame.”

This applies to the pitching staff, too, mainly the bullpen. Craig Lefferts and Tim Stoddard had so-so first halves, but Williams has said he will go to his bullpen sooner now, which means Lefferts and Stoddard take on added importance.

Fortunately for Williams, Stoddard has been better lately, having yielded just 3 runs in his last 13 innings for a 2.08 ERA. This is the same guy who was told by a Chicago writer that he could’ve helped the Cub staff and then answered: “Have you seen my ERA?”

But he is better now.

“They say it’s a long season, and since the first half is over, I guess the rest is more important,” Stoddard said. “I’d like to say I’ll try to have an exceptional second half. That’s more important than the first half.”

Lefferts didn’t yield a run in two innings of work Thursday, although Williams said before the game: “I’ve got to see it more than one out of two times.”

And then there’s Goose Gossage, who normally excels when August and September roll around, but will have to adjust to a July pennant race. Some players, wishing for anonymity, noticed last year that the speed in Gossage’s pitches increased greatly during the All-Star game, when he was hyped up before a national television audience.

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, the guys were out on three pitches,” one player said.

But Gossage has been great for most of the first half this season, gaining his 19th save Thursday.

“He’s been ‘Money Time’ all year long,” Williams said. “If we didn’t have him, we’d up the creek a little, I think.”

Gossage: “I hate to even say that I’ve had better second halves because everybody as a whole is more intense in the second half. It’s only natural.”

But he went on to say: “Nothing’s greater than a pennant race.”

Reliever Roy Lee Jackson, acquired in the Alan Wiggins deal, has impressed Williams, and Williams said he could be available as a fifth starter, if needed. Jackson made his first visit to San Diego Thursday. He has fit in well.

As for the starters, there will be four, for now. They are Dave Dravecky, Andy Hawkins, LaMarr Hoyt and Eric Show. Hoyt, who was the MVP in the All-Star game, was asked by Williams to bring out the lineup card before Thursday’s game, and no one in the crowd noticed. That’s unfortunate because that’s why Williams sent him out there, to get him applause.

So, he’ll send him out before tonight’s game, too.

As for Hawkins, his last victory came June 9 in Cincinnati. And even though he missed his last start with a cut right index finger, he is expected to do well once again.

Some people were perturbed Hawkins wasn’t named to the All-Star pitching squad, but he was. It’s just that NL President Chub Feeney doesn’t like for pitchers to withdraw with injuries because it slights the pitcher who takes his place. Williams was told by Feeney days before the team was picked that Hawkins couldn’t go. Consequently, he wasn’t officially picked.

“It’s ashame,” Williams said. “They don’t like to announce pitchers and have them withdraw. He (Feeney) was so furious with (Joaquin) Andujar (who didn’t go because he wasn’t named the starting pitcher).”

Hawkins isn’t the only ailing Padre. It’s not clear if Tony Gwynn will again be healthy this year. He’s been playing with a sore left wrist for weeks now, and, although X-rays Wednesday were negative, he will undergo a bone scan today. His average has fallen to .299.

“If anything, it’s got to be ligaments,” Gwynn said. “I figure the bone is bruised. So the pain, I figure, is ligaments.

“I’ll keep playing,” he said. “I’m not worried about it.”

Shortstop Garry Templeton petrified the Padres when he hurt his ankle in St. Louis, for it appeared initially to be a hairline fracture. But the X-rays came back negative.

One player worth mentioning is Bruce Bochy, a catcher, who got hot at the plate in June and early July. But on July 8 in Chicago, Tim Stoddard accidently picked up Bochy’s favorite bat and broke it on a slow ground ball.

“If Bochy goes 0-for-15 now, you can blame me,” Stoddard said that day.

He’s 0-for-3 and counting.

The coaches play a part in this, too. Third-base coach Ozzie Virgil probably has the most difficult job, for he has to deal with all those Padre base runners, telling them when to run, when to hold up. He says it’s easy to coach runners with instinct; the runners who know when a ball will drop in and just take off. But the Padres have a few slowpokes that Virgil must deal with, too.

As for Williams, he has done much this year to help the morale of his team. He rarely calls team meetings, and he opened Thursday’s by asking the players to applaud the seven guys who made the All-Star team.

“Yeah, he asked for applause, and there was like a moment of silence,” Gwynn said. “Finally, a couple guys said: ‘Way to go, guys.’ ”

But with one down and 17 to go, who can think of individualistic things? We have ourselves a pennant race.