Padres Split a Pair Against the Braves

Between games of Sunday’s doubleheader, the Padre players were fired up. They were psyched. It appeared that they couldn’t get back on the field fast enough for the second game. There was a spark that has been missing lately.

The Padres had beaten the Braves, 2-1, on Graig Nettles’ two-run homer in the first inning. The Dodgers had lost at San Francisco, 2-1 in 10 innings. Both events drew loud cheers from a spirited crowd of 32,531 at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

San Diego won the first game with the long ball, good defense and excellent relief pitching.

Tony Gwynn said, “ That was Padre baseball,” referring to how the team played last season and in the opening months of this 1985.

Maybe this day would be the start of a memorable comeback. A victory in the second game would give the Padres a three-game winning streak and enable them to pick up 1 1/2 games on the Dodgers. With 45 games to play, they would be seven games behind L.A.

It would be a very positive way to end a home stand and start a nine-game, three-city Eastern trip.

The script was written. Now, the Padres had to provide the ending.

Atlanta did not cooperate. The Braves scored four runs in the sixth inning on home runs by Dale Murphy and Ken Oberkfell to beat the Padres, 6-3.

LaMarr Hoyt, who hasn’t won in his last six starts, gave up 11 hits and 6 earned runs in 5 innings.

So much for momentum.

“Picking up a game and a half would have been one more sign,” Steve Garvey said. “We’re planting the seeds of resurrection. Psychologically, a win would make us more effective.”

After the second game, the Padre locker room was somber. Suddenly, smiles had turned to long, worn faces.

“It’s disappointing,” Gwynn said. “We didn’t play that badly this home stand, but we have to play better. We have had some clutch base hits, but not enough of them.”

The tide of the second game turned when Gwynn hit into a double play with runners on first and third and one out in the fifth inning. San Diego had just tied the game, 2-2, on Tim Flannery’s RBI double.

Moments later, the Braves converted their good defensive play into offensive fireworks.

Murphy, who hit a thunderous home run in the first game and leads the major leagues with 33 homers, hit Hoyt’s 0-1 pitch into the stands in right-center field.

After Terry Harper grounded out, Gerald Perry bounced a single off the first base bag.

“I had a feeling it might be their game when it hit the bag,” Garvey said.

When you’re eight games out of first place, which the Padres are, players start looking for omens. Particularly bad ones.

Oberkfell followed Perry’s hit with a homer to right field. A single by Rick Cerone, and Hoyt was gone. Again.

“He couldn’t get location, but I stayed with him because I thought he’d come out of it,” Manager Dick Williams said. “It didn’t work. I guess I was wrong.”

One thing Williams can’t control is run production. In Sunday’s doubleheader, Garvey, Nettles and Terry Kennedy went 3 for 20 with three walks.

The Padres got nine hits, but only three runs, against Craig McMurtry, Terry Forster (2-3), Gene Garber and Bruce Sutter in the second game. Sutter gained his 20th save.

In the opener, the Padres managed only three hits against starter and loser Steve Bedrosian and Garber.

One of the hits was Nettles’ 13th home run, a towering fly ball to right field.

The home run held up because of fine defense and strong relief pitching.

With the Padres holding a 2-1 lead in the fifth, Gwynn threw out Glenn Hubbard on Rafael Ramirez’s fly ball to medium deep right-center.

Gwynn’s throw reached Kennedy on the fly. Kennedy caught the ball up the third base line, blocked the plate and withstood a collision with Hubbard. When the dust cleared, Kennedy had the ball and Hubbard was out.

“Hubbard runs pretty quick and I figured the only way I’d get him is if I threw it in the air,” Gwynn said. “Then, T.K. really made the play.”

Ramirez was the first hitter that Roy Lee Jackson faced. Mark Thurmond gave up six hits and one run in 4 innings, but he was constantly in trouble and was saved by double plays in the second and third innings.

Jackson pitched 2 shutout innings to pick up his first win as a Padre. He is 1-2.

With runners on first and second and two out in the seventh, Lance McCullers replaced Jackson. McCullers, who has become an instant favorite with the fans and his teammates, got the right-handed hitting Ramirez to fly to left.

McCullers said he was a little tired and didn’t have real good stuff in the eighth inning, but he still got Oberkfell to ground out with a runner on second.

“He really didn’t pop the ball in the eighth,” Williams said. “That’s why I went out there at the start of the ninth.”

Three left-handed pinch-hitters would be coming up. McCullers told Williams “he could get them,” and Williams left him in. The fans cheered.

Milt Thompson (10 for 22 as a pinch-hitter) struck out looking, Perry flied to right, and Chris Chambliss walked. On the 1-1 pitch to Chambliss, the fans roared. The Dodgers had lost.

Then came the clincher on the home front. McCullers, who said he was “able to reach back and pop it” in the ninth inning, caught Brad Komminsk looking at a changeup for strike three.

There were a lot of handshakes on the field and a lot of smiles in the Padre locker room. There was anticipation.

Contrast that to a few hours later when the fans formed a wave in the ninth inning of the second game.

With a tough trip coming up, maybe they were waving goodby to the Padre season.

Padre Notes

Shortstop Garry Templeton twisted his left knee and left ankle when he collided with center fielder Kevin McReynolds in the first inning of the first game. Both were going after Dale Murphy’s pop fly, which dropped in for a single. Templeton left the first game in the sixth inning and did not play in the second game. . . . Goose Gossage, recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, will make the upcoming trip with the Padres. Manager Dick Williams said he expects Gossage to throw lightly to trainer Dick Dent in Montreal and to throw from the mound on Aug. 26 in Philadelphia.

Game One FIRST INNING Padres--With two out, Garvey walked. Nettles homered to right, his 13th. Kennedy grounded to the pitcher. Two runs, one hit, none left.

FOURTH INNING Braves--Murphy homered to left-center, his 32nd. Horner flied to right. Harper singled to left. Harper was picked off. Oberkfell popped to third. One run, two hits, none left.

Game Two FIRST INNING Padres--Royster homered to left-center, his second. Gwynn grounded to the pitcher. Garvey flied to right. Nettles struck out. One run, one hit, none left.

SECOND INNING Braves--Harper singled to left. Perry singled to center, Harper taking third. Perry stole second, Harper when Kennedy’s throw went into center field, Perry going to third on the error. Oberkfell singled to center, Perry scoring. Cerone reached on a fielder’s choice. Zuvella reached on a fielder’s choice. McMurtry struck out. Two runs, three hits, one error, one left.

FIFTH INNING Padres--McReynolds singled to right. Flannery doubled to right-center, McReynolds scoring. Hoyt popped to first. Royster singled to the second baseman, Flannery stopping at third. Forster replaced McMurtry. Gwynn hit into a double play. One run, three hits, one left.

SIXTH INNING Braves--Murphy homered to right-center, his 33rd. Harper grounded to second. Perry singled to right. Oberkfell homered to right, his third. Cerone singled to center. Stoddard replaced Hoyt. Zuvella tripled to left-center, Cerone scoring. Forster lined to short. Thompson grounded to short. Four runs, five hits, one left.

SEVENTH INNING Padres--Garber took the mound. Martinez bunted for a hit. McReynolds reached on a fielder’s choice. Flannery doubled to right-center, McReynolds scoring with Flannery taking third on Thompson’s error. Brown, batting for Stoddard, flied to right. Royster grounded to first. One run, two hits, one error, one left.