Padres and Hoyt Balk at a Chance to Stay in Second

Bob Costas and Tony Kubek of NBC-TV invaded the Padre dugout before batting practice Friday night and actually had the gall to ask Steve Garvey to move his head, which was blocking the camera.

Lights, camera, action.

This is Bob Costas and Tony Kubek from the Houston Astrodome. It’s San Diego and LaMarr Hoyt against Houston and Joe Niekro. Oughtta be a pitchers’ duel. We’ll be back with our pregame show in a minute.

Pitchers’ duel? Hoyt, elsewhere in the dugout, knew better. Although it wasn’t the greatest thing to do, he was thoroughly upset before the game began when he heard who would be umpiring the contest.

Their names were Doug Harvey, Frank Pulli, Joe West and Eric Gregg, and they’ve been his worst enemy all season. In two previous games, they had called four balks on him, the only balks in his entire career, and that includes “growing up leagues,” Hoyt said.

In those games, Hoyt had become so disgusted that he’d thrown horribly, giving up eight earned runs in an inning against St. Louis on May 15 and four earned runs in two innings against Houston on July 1.

It happened again Friday. In the second inning, with the score 1-0, home plate umpire West called a balk. Hoyt was fuming. He promptly gave up a three-run home run to Bill Doran, and the Astros went on to win, 12-9, after leading, 10-1.

Pitchers’ duel? The teams combined for 32 hits.

The loss, coupled with Cincinnati splitting a doubleheader against the Dodgers, dropped the Padres into third place in the National League West, percentage points behind the Reds and five games behind Los Angeles.

It was clear Hoyt (13-6) became flustered over the balk. Afterward, he began talking as if he would have to alter his delivery if he pitched again in front of the same umpiring crew. But then, he said he wouldn’t change.

“No way I’m changing,” said Hoyt, perhaps the most mild-mannered Padre. “There’s two ways to react. I can either take it and be a nice guy like I did tonight. Or, the next time, I can be in their face. Guess what it’s going to be? I mean, those were the only three bad games of my season. Either I don’t know what I’m doing or they don’t. I’ve been pitching 22 years, and I certainly know what a balk is.”

A balk simply is when a pitcher deceives a baserunner. So a pitcher must stop his hands before he throws to the plate. And he can’t go into his leg kick before he stops those hands.

Hoyt stops his hands and kicks his legs simultaneously, which is allowed.

This crew calls a balk.

“I’ve got to admit,” Hoyt said. “It was in the back of my mind (before the game).”

After the balk was called, Hoyt made sure he made an exaggerated stop in his delivery, and it must have ruined his rhythm because Doran hit the ball far over the right-field fence. In the third inning, with the score 7-0, Hoyt left.

The Padres added a run off of winner Joe Niekro (9-8) in the fourth, but reliever Ed Wojna had tough luck in the fifth, which led to three more Astro runs. At the time, Manager Dick Williams figured it be a good time to rest some players. So before the fifth inning, he had replaced Steve Garvey with Kurt Bevacqua and Tony Gwynn with Al Bumbry.

Bevacqua booted a ground ball to start the fifth, and Jose Cruz (four hits) and Jerry Mumphrey reached on infield singles. Kevin Bass then had an RBI on another infield single, and Niekro, who ended with three RBIs, singled in two runs.

None of the three runs against Wojna were earned, but it was 10-1.

But Niekro, whose knuckleball was outstanding Friday (three passed balls lets you know so), lost it.

“You get a big lead like that and it changes your pitching pattern,” he said. “You’re trying to get ahead of hitters with fastballs, and I’m not a fastball pitcher.”

So the Padres scored five runs in the sixth, thanks in part to three wild pitches by Niekro. Graig Nettles, Terry Kennedy and Al Bumbry had doubles. Bobby Brown and Tim Flannery had singles. Bevacqua had a sacrifice fly.

It was 10-6.

Then, Nettles hit his 12th homer of the season, making it 10-7. It stayed that way until Tim Stoddard started the bottom of the eighth for the Padres. By this time, Williams had used every bench player but Bruce Bochy and Jerry Royster. He had Mario Ramirez at shortstop. Still, there was hope.

But Stoddard gave up two runs, and, although the Padres added two runs in the ninth, it was over.

“That would’ve been the game of the year had we won,” Royster said. “Everyone would’ve pointed to it and said that’s when we turned it around.”

But they lost. And a loss is a loss.

But is a balk a balk?

Padre Notes

Padre General Manager Jack McKeon, who was in Houston with the team, said a player will not be added to replace injured Goose Gossage. “We’ve got four games (before a possible strike), and I don’t think it’d be fair to be the young player. If we went on strike, he’d be on strike, too.” If a strike is avoided, McKeon said he would add a player, although he said he’s talking to one team about a trade for a certain undisclosed reliever. “Maybe in a day or two, I can’t make a deal for a relief pitcher,” he said. “We think the guy’s done a good job every time we’ve seen him. He does have a little experience on the major league level, but not a great deal.” McKeon would not name names about whom he was speaking. . . . Al Bumbry, had three hits, but his first was the most important since it came on a pinch-hit attempt. He’d been 0 for 22 as a pinch-hitter, and said: “When I got that hit, it was like the whole world had been lifted off my shoulders. I just relaxed after that.”