Padres Lose to Cardinals in 12th

Normally, it would be said that Ozzie Smith came back to haunt his ex-teammates. But, really, the Padres haunted themselves Friday night.

Again.

Unable to capitalize on numerous scoring opportunities, San Diego ended up losing its sixth straight, 2-1, to the St. Louis Cardinals in 12 innings. Smith had the game-winning RBI, a sharp single to center with Jack Clark on third base. How did Clark get to third? He had blooped a single to center off reliever Tim Stoddard to start the 12th and gone to second on Tito Landrum’s sacrifice. How he got to third ended up being the play of the night.

Terry Pendleton, with Clark on second, had hit a ball hard to shortstop Garry Templeton. Clark was running, and Templeton could have had thrown him out at third. But he bobbled the ball and had to throw to first for the out.

Smith, who hits .248 left-handed compared to .308 right-handed, hit his left-handed single.

Why was Stoddard pitching? Goose Gossage had pitched two innings of perfect relief baseball in the 10th and 11th, but two innings is all Manager Dick Williams will use him. It had to be Stoddard.

Joaquin Andujar, seemingly tireless, went 11 innings and got the victory, his 17th. Ken Dayley got the save.

“It’s getting to be old hat, huh?” Williams said. “We played better. But it’s a shame. Another funny thing (Templeton’s bobble) happened.”

And the Padres apparently had laughed off Thursday’s game, when they’d blown a 6-0 lead and lost 9-6. Jack Krol, who makes out their lineup card, wrote the names in backwards on Friday.

“You’ve got to have a little fun when you’re playing like this,” Krol had said.

And so many Padres could’ve been sudden stars. In the 11th, Bobby Brown, who had entered the game as a pinch-runner in the ninth, singled to center. Kevin McReynolds then put down a perfect sacrifice. Brown took second. Templeton was then walked intentionally, which put the game in the hands of pinch-hitter Jerry Royster.

Why Royster, a right-handed hitter, against Andujar, a right-handed pitcher? Why not left-handed hitting Al Bumbry? Williams cited Bumbry’s .197 batting average. Incidentally, Royster had said before the game that he was absolutely the worst pinch-hitter ever.

“I have the worst time pinch-hitting,” he said. “I think I have two or three hits lifetime. I’m probably the worst in the history of the major leagues.”

He popped out to third.

Then, Tim Flannery grounded out to second. Inning and rally over.

And the Padres had a chance in the 10th, too, when Andujar walked Tony Gwynn. With two outs, Graig Nettles singled Gwynn to third. Terry Kennedy could’ve been a hero. He wasn’t. He flied out to center.

And the heroics also could have belonged to Kurt Bevacqua, who came up to pinch-hit for Draveckey with Bobby Brown on second in the bottom of the ninth. But on an 0-and-1 pitch, he lashed a ball up the middle, a ball that Andujar dove for and caught.

And so Dravecky, who had yielded just four hits and one run in nine innings, had a no-decision, which means he had absolutely no luck.

He deserved better. In the St. Louis ninth, Willie McGee had stood on second with one out, yet Dravecky, after walking Clark intentionally, retired Landrum and Pendleton. Pendleton struck out looking on an outside pitch. Dravecky still was sharp two hours later.

As for the team? Even after Thursday’s catastrophe, life carried on. The Padres showed up, and, yes, they even took batting practice. Gwynn was out there for his usual extra hitting, having seen something he’d done wrong when he watched Thursday’s video tape.

He was swinging good Friday.

“That’s right,” batting coach Deacon Jones said. “Let the ball come to your happy zone.”

Speaking of zones, Kevin McReynolds has been out of it lately, having gone 2 for 28 since the All-Star break. Thursday, he was benched, but Williams had him back in the lineup Friday. During batting practice, he had ripped ball after ball after ball. Williams walked up to Jones smiling.

Said Jones: “Maybe the day off helped. That’s the best he’s hit in batting practice in a long time.”

Then, he went 0 for 4.

Anyway, the difference in the Padres Friday night was pitching. Dravecky yielded just one hit through six innings, and not one ball was hit out of the infield during that span. Not one lazy fly ball to left. Nothing.

Padre Notes Can Thursday’s game be forgotten? On the stadium video scoreboard here, where they usually replay highlights from the previous day’s game, they failed to show the two Padre errors that enabled Terry Pendleton to scramble home after he’d hit just a routine single. And Manager Dick Williams still refused to comment on the game.